West Indies' hard-hitter Nicholas Pooran smashed an unbeaten 55-ball 137 in the final of the Major League Cricket 2023 leading the MI New York to the title in the inaugural edition against Seattle Orcas in Dallas, Texas on Sunday, July 30 (local time). Pooran, who isn't part of the West Indies squad for the ongoing ODI series against India, has been leading the MI New York since Kieron Pollard got injured on July 25 against this very opposition on July 25.
After which, Pooran-led MINY beat Washington Freedom in the eliminator, Texas Super Kings in the Challenger and now Seattle Orcas in the final to win the inaugural MLC title. Quinton de Kock's 87 and a few more contributions in the middle order helped the Orcas post a strong total of 183 runs on the board before they were blown away by a Pooran storm.
Pooran raced away to a 16-ball half-century in the powerplay itself before taking just 24 more balls to a 40-ball century. One of the craziest knocks, involving some of the belligerent hitting in recent times, Pooran smashed 13 sixes and 10 fours as the table toppers had no c;lue how to handle that hammering. However, unfortunately for Pooran, the knock will not have any official status.
Pooran's 137 off 55 will be remembered by him, the fans who watch the MLC 2023 final live and MI New York but it won't be counted in official T20 records. As per ICC, the T20 leagues hosted or organised by countries apart from full-member nations won't have a List-A T20 status and hence the titles, records, and number of matches for any of the players - nothing will be counted.
MLC falls in the category of leagues such as International League T20 (ILT20) by the United Arab Emirates and Canada's Global T20 Canada without an official T20 status. Similarly, all the T10 Leagues in the world don't have an official status as well.
The tournament may be great for the expansion and growth of cricket in the United States of America (USA) having been sanctioned by the International Cricket Council (ICC), however, won't be official till the USA acquires a full-member status from Associate. Thankfully for the league, after it got USA Cricket's approval, it was sanctioned by ICC otherwise without the same, the overseas players wouldn't have gotten the NOC from their respective cricket boards and the ones playing in the tournament might have to face the music, including fines and fans for being involved in 'Disapproved Cricket'.
