Nicholas Pooran, the 29-year-old former West Indies cricketer, will take over from Kieron Pollard as the new captain of MI New York for the third season of the Major League Cricket (MLC). Pooran, who played a huge part in MINY's title win in 2023, smashing an unbeaten 137 off just 55 in the final against the Seattle Orcas. Pollard is with the squad for the inaugural champions but Pooran will be the captain from this season onwards.
The second season wasn't as great for the New York outfit, winning just two games out of the seven, but they still made it to the playoffs. However, it didn't end auspiciously for the Men in Blue. Hence, MINY have recruited the likes of Quinton de Kock, Naveen ul Haq, Michael Bracewell, Azmatullah Omarzai and George Linde as part of the overhaul in the overseas roster and will hope that these wholesale changes bring results.
Apart from MINY, Washington Freedom too had to name a new captain with Steve Smith, who led the franchise to the title last year, will be playing just two games this season, amid a busy Test season. For the rest of the matches, Glenn Maxwell will lead the side. Freedom have kept most of their winning squad members intact but will not have the services of Marco Jansen and Smith. Hence, Mark Chapman, Ben Sears, Mitch Owen and Jason Behrendorff have been signed to bump up their overseas roster.
The defending champions, Freedom, will kick off the tournament against the San Francisco Unicorns on June 12 at the Oakland Coliseum.
The rest of the four teams are set to continue with their captains from last season with Heinrich Klaasen being announced as Seattle Orcas skipper, Faf du Plessis for Texas Super Kings, Sunil Narine for LA Knight Riders and Corey Anderson being the only domestic name for the San Francisco Unicorns.
