The IPL ended just a week ago, albeit because of being shifted ahead due to literally a war being waged between two countries, another T20 league, which is still in its nascent stage, is ready to take flight. The Major League Cricket, in its third edition, has now expanded to 34 matches from 25 last season, and has attracted a bit more interest from international players, sponsors, broadcasters and even locally in the United States, especially after the T20 World Cup last year across Florida, Dallas and New York.
There is a new addition in the venues department with Oakland Coliseum hosting the first nine matches. Half of the teams have changed their captains and two of those finished in the bottom half - MI New York (Nicholas Pooran), LA Knight Riders (Jason Holder) and Washington Freedom (Glenn Maxwell). The defending champions, Freedom, won't have their regular skipper, Steve Smith, available for most of their season due to the busy Test season and hence had to appoint a new skipper.
A few teams have overhauled their squads after the last season - MI New York and the Seattle Orcas in particular - while the hand was forced for a few with Australian and South African players unavailable. With the teams set to increase from 2027 onwards, this season will be key in the tournament's popularity and growth across the states and around the world and the teams, owners and players would want to come together to deliver for the collective good.
When and where to watch MLC 2025 live on TV and OTT in India?
The 34-match tournament begins in California on June 12 and culminates in Dallas, Texas on July 13. The night games in California will have a 6:30 IST start and the day games will kick off at 2:30 AM IST. The hours keep pushing back with the venue change. In Dallas, it's 5:30 AM and 1:30 AM IST for night and day games, respectively and in Lauderhill, Florida, is 4:30 AM and 12:30 AM IST for night and day matches, respectively.
All matches of the 2025 edition of the MLC will be live broadcast on Star Sports Network and JioHotstar will stream the games live on its app and website.
Squads
Washington Freedom
Steve Smith, Rachin Ravindra, Glen Phillips, Mark Chapman, Mukhtar Ahmed, Lahiru Milantha, Andries Gous, Ben Sears, Lockie Ferguson, Jason Behrendroff, Saurabh Netravalkar, Yasir Mohammad, Amila Aponso, Abhishek, Glenn Maxwell (c), Justin Dill, Obus Pienaar, Jack Edwards, Iam Holland, Mitchell Owen.
San Francisco Unicorns
Corey Anderson (c), Finn Allen, Tim Seifert, Jack Frasser McGurk, Karima Gore, Sanjay Krishnamurthi, Liam Plunkett, Xavier Bartlett, Brody Couch, Callum Stow, Carmi le Roux. Haris Rauf, Juanoy Drysdale, Matthew Short, Hassan Khan, Copper Cannolly.
MI New York
Kieron Pollard, Quinton de Kock, Nicholas Pooran (w/c), Monak Patel, Heath Richards, Sharad Lumba, Agni Chopra, Kumwarjit Singh, Trent Boult, Ehsan Adil, Nosthush Kenjige, Naveen ul Haq, Rushil Ugarkar, Michael Bracewell, George Linde, Sunny Patel, Tajinder Singh
Texas Super Kings
Faf du Plessis (c), Daryl Mitchell, Devon Conway, Calvin Savage, Saiteja Mukkamalla, Joshua Tromp, Adam Khan, Adam Milne, Noor Ahmad, Zia ul Haq Muhammad, Marcus Stoinis, Milind Kumar, Mohammad Mohsin, Shubham Ranjane
Los Angeles Knight Riders
Sunil Narine, Alex Hales, Said Badar, Nitish Kumar, Rovman Powell, Unmukt Chand, Andre Fletcher, Sherfane Rutherford, Adithiya Ganesh, Jason Holder (c), Corne Dry, Anrich Nortje, Ali Khan, Tanveer Sangha, Andre Russell, Shadley van Schalkwyk, Karthik Gattepalli, Matthew Tromp
Seattle Orcas
David Warner, Shimron Hetmyer, Shayan Jahangir, Steven Taylor, Aaron Jones, Heinrich Klaasen (w/c), Sujit Nayak, Rahul Jariwala, Cameron Gannon, Obed McCoy, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Waqar Salamkheli, Jasdeep Singh, Ayan Desai, Sikandar Raza, Gulbadin Naib, Kyle Mayers, Harmeet Singh, Ali Sheikh
