Half of the overseas players in the men’s Hundred could arrive in the UK late this year after Major League Cricket (MLC) confirmed on Tuesday that the two leagues will overlap by six days in July.
MLC 2024 will be played across two venues•Sportzpics
Like last year, two venues will be used: Grand Prairie Stadium near Dallas, Texas and Church Street Park in Morrisville, North Carolina. The ICC said earlier this year that MLC were evaluating the possibility of using the ‘modular’ stadium in Eisenhower Park, near New York – which will host eight T20 World Cup matches in June – but those plans have been shelved.
MLC has proved particularly attractive to Australian players this year, with Steven Smith, Travis Head, Glenn Maxwell and Jake Fraser-McGurk all due to feature. Two MLC franchises have links with Australian states – Washington Freedom (New South Wales) and San Francisco Unicorns (Victorians) – while a Seattle Orcas squad recently toured Queensland.
A desire to attract the best overseas players in the world is among several reasons underpinning the ECB’s plan to sell equity stakes in Hundred teams to private investors later this year. Richard Gould, the ECB’s chief executive, said last month that there is a “strong consensus that we would like to see private investment come into the Hundred”.
The ECB have been meeting counties regularly and hope they will agree on a direction of travel this week. Under their latest proposals, they would gift a 51% share in each Hundred team to its host county (or MCC, in the case of London Spirit) and would sell the other 49% itself by the end of the year, sharing the revenue generated across the English game.
“Who gets what within that 49%? That’s where the conversation will be over the next couple of weeks,” Stuart Cain, Warwickshire’s chief executive, told BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra last week. “What’s the best way to spread that money around the 18 counties – if you include the MCC, 19 – to try and create a more sustainable, vibrant foundation for the county system?”
Matt Roller is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. @mroller98