The arrival of Major League Cricket — the USA's first-ever professional T20 franchise cricket league — will open up new avenues for the sport, and its fans, in North America.
Sanctioned by USA Cricket — the official governing body for cricket in the US — the creation of a professional league for what is still considered to be a niche sport should accelerate the mainstream popularity of cricket throughout the region. At least that is the organizers' plan.
The sport actually already has something of a tradition in North America. Some might think that the oldest cricket rivalry is between England and Australia. However, that isn't actually the case. According to Tom Melville's 'A History of Cricket in America', before the Civil War, cricket was actually the most famous sport in the country.
An international contest took place in 1844 between USA and Canada and is known to be one of the earliest cricketing rivalries.
More than 175 years on, for a large chunk of the American population the sport of cricket is a puzzling question mark. Some people associate it with baseball, while others believe that the game is not fast enough to engage their interest. But what exactly is cricket and how is it played?
How does cricket work? Rules, format and everything to know
Essentially, cricket is an often tense cat-and-mouse game between two teams of 11 players. The sport can be played in three formats: T20s, One-Day Internationals and Test matches.
Major League Cricket will be played in the T20 format, a variation that typically lasts for three to four hours.
The team batting first wants to score as many runs as possible by running between the stumps at each end of the pitch, or by hitting the ball hard — hard enough to fly over the fielders and beyond a rope at the boundary, to earn that team four runs (for crossing the boundary having bounced) or six runs (for crossing the boundary on the fly).
A cricket pitch is the central rectangular strip between the wickets that is 22 yards long and 10 feet wide. And wickets are the three stumps placed at both ends of the pitch.
The aim of the game is to put a mammoth total on the scoreboard that will prove insurmountable for the opposition. Meanwhile, the bowling team is looking to keep the run total down by getting the batting team's batters out of the field as quickly as possible — either by hitting the wickets, catching the ball when it's been hit by a batter, or forcing the batter to prevent the ball from hitting the stumps directly by using their protective leg pads, rather than their bat (known as Leg Before Wicket, or LBW).
In T20s, like the MLC, each bowler gets four overs, and one over consists of six balls. Once all the balls have been bowled, or all the batters are out, the teams switch roles.
One-Day Internationals are similar, but each team has 50 overs, rather than 20, while Test matches are the longest format of the game and take place over five days, with both teams batting twice over two innings and their run total from both being combined.
Frustratingly for some neutrals, Test matches can be played for five days and still end in a draw if one team has not won in that time!
MORE: MLC 2023 results and matches
Major League Cricket format, rules and schedule
While the way that cricket is played across the world is broadly the same, each specific competition can have slight variations on rules relating to rosters and the like.
In MLC, every team can have a minimum of 16 and a maximum of 19 players on its squad. Each roster will need to have one domestic Under-23 rookie player, to help promote cricket in the USA and develop future generations of American players.
On its complete roster, each team may have nine international players. However, no more than six of those players will be allowed in the playing 11.
In MLC, each team will play in the round-robin format against one another. The four teams that emerge on top of the points table will then qualify for the playoffs.
The playoffs will include the Eliminator, the Challenger, the Qualifier and the Final. That Final will be played between the winner of the Qualifier and the Challenger on July 30.
Major League Cricket playoff schedule
| Date & Time | Game | Venue |
| 07/27/2023, 03:30 PM CDT | Seed 3 vs Seed 4 | Grand Prairie Stadium, TX |
| 07/27/2023, 07:30 PM CDT | Seed 1 vs Seed 2 | Grand Prairie Stadium, TX |
| 07/28/2023, 07:30 PM CDT | Loser Qualifier vs Winner Eliminator | Grand Prairie Stadium, TX |
| 07/30/2023, 07:30 PM CDT | Winner Qualifier vs Winner Challenger | Grand Prairie Stadium, TX |
Lots to take in? Don’t worry, MLC has got you covered.
Spectators at the stadiums unaware of the rules will receive 'Cricket 101' flyers and get access to ambassadors who will help them understand the game, with the action taking place at the Grand Prairie stadium in Texas and Church Street Park in North Carolina from July 13-30.
