Major League Cricket invite USA Cricket to join triangular practice match series in Texas

Photo Credit: USA Cricket

• Two Major League Cricket squads are joined by a USA Cricket Training Group XI for a triangular series of 50 Overs Matches starting today in Houston, Texas
• This follows a short USA Cricket Men’s training camp held earlier this week, with 28 of the Men’s Training Group remaining in Texas following the Houston Open
• 14 of the Men’s Training Group have come together to replace a 3rd side in the tournament unable to travel to represent a USA Cricket Training Group XI

Major League Cricket (MLC) and USA Cricket are pleased to announce a series of practice matches that will begin today at the Prairie View Cricket Complex in Houston, Texas with 3 teams coming together to give high-quality practice match-opportunities for both MLC players and members of the USA Cricket Men’s Training Group that were available to remain in Texas after the training camp staged over the past few days.

The matches will see two teams of Major League Cricket squad members separated into the MLC Gold XI and the MLC Silver XI play out a triangular series of one day matches over six days against a USA Cricket Training Group XI. The opportunity for this series to come about was a late development due to the amended plans for the week of cricket organized by Major League Cricket, who were initially planning to host an Invitational XI comprising a number of players from Barbados.

However, due to the volcanic eruption on the island of St Vincent which has seen all air travel to and from Barbados suspended, the opportunity has come about to get a series of high-quality practice matches together for both MLC and USA Cricket.

The two partners have worked together closely over the last 72 hours to make these matches possible, taking a pragmatic approach to give some of the best cricketers in America an opportunity for a return to competitive cricket at very late notice.

All matches will take place under the watchful eye of the USA Cricket Men’s Head Coach, J Arun Kumar who remains in attendance for the matches which are  being played in a COVID-19 responsible manner, after a USA Men’s Training Camp earlier this week was successfully run under those conditions. 

Co-Founder of Major League Cricket, Sameer Mehta said, “When it became clear that the ongoing volcanic activity in the Caribbean meant that our original plans were not going to be possible, we thought it was a perfect opportunity to work with our partners at USA Cricket to offer some of their already gathered players a series of high-quality matches on turf wickets at our new facility in Texas. We are very grateful to Richard Done, J Arun Kumar and all involved in the USA Cricket High Performance program for helping to make this happen and we are very pleased to be able to put on a high-calibre series of matches this week. We are committed to providing our contracted players regular playing opportunities before Minor League Cricket gets underway later in the year and series like this are an ideal showcase for all involved.”

USA Cricket Operations Director, Richard Done, said, “This series of games has very much come up at late notice.  But with 28 of our Men’s Training Group players already gathering in Texas for a training camp mostly involving players who were already attending the Houston Open, it made perfect sense for us to be able to step in and provide some competitive match-play opportunities. We are thankful to our partners at ACE who have turned this series around in a remarkable timeframe, and we have managed to get together what will be a brilliant opportunity for those players who were available to take part.”

Schedule

There will be a series of 5 One-Day matches over the course of 6 days, which will all be played on turf wickets at the MLC National Cricket Center at Prairie View Cricket Complex in Houston, Texas. The schedule for the series is as follows:

Thursday 22nd April USA Cricket Training Group XI v MLC Gold XI

Friday 23rd April MLC Gold XI v MLC Silver XI

Saturday 24th April USA Cricket Training Group XI v MLC Silver XI

Monday 26th April USA Cricket Training Group XI v MLC Gold XI

Tuesday 27th April USA Cricket Training Group XI v MLC Silver XI 

All matches start at 10am local time. (11am EST) 

Squads

USA Cricket Training Group XI 

MLC Silver XI

MLC Gold XI 

Name of Author: USA Cricket

USA Cricket

USA Cricket (USAC) is the governing body for cricket in the United States, overseeing the national men’s, women’s, and youth teams. It also manages Major League Cricket, the premier domestic Twenty20 competition in the U.S.