USA: The inaugural Major League Cricket tournament is finally here.

The T20 competition, the country's most ambitious effort to date to establish professional cricket, will be contested over the course of three weeks at Church Street Park in North Carolina and Grand Prairie Stadium in Texas.

Each of the six teams, which have their home cities in Dallas, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Seattle, and New York City, was given a $1.5 million wage cap to sign 18 players, with a cap of seven international stars.

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Rich Indian firms and celebrities contributed more than AU$174 million to the six-team competition, including Microsoft CEO Satya Nardella and Bollywood icon Shah Rukh Khan.

“The goal is to grow the game of cricket and expose the sport in the USA,” tournament director Justin Geale told AFP.

“We‘ve got some of the best players in the world that can actually represent the product, do it justice. So it’s going to be a good quality game of cricket that gives us the best chance to show existing fans and new fans the game.

Introducing our #MajorLeagueCricket championship trophy ????

???? Drop us a line of which team you think will be holding this on July 3️⃣0️⃣!!! pic.twitter.com/QhhjHgen9T

— Major League Cricket (@MLCricket) July 12, 2023

“We‘ve got as far as anyone ever has. So after all the false starts, I think it’s finally here.”

The San Francisco Unicorns and Washington Freedom will be led by former Australian captain Aaron Finch and Sydney Sixers veteran Moises Henriques, respectively. Former Test all-rounder Shane Watson and NSW Blues coach Greg Shipperd will serve as the teams' head coaches.

Adam Zampa, Tim David, Jason Behrendorff, Andrew Tye, Matthew Wade, Marcus Stoinis, Daniel Sams, Ben Dwarshuis, and Josh Philippe are just a few of the other notable Australian internationals that will play. Mitchell Marsh had been hired by the Seattle Orcas at first, but the Australian all-rounder had to leave because of Ashes commitments.

Internationally renowned athletes including West Indies champion Andre Russell, New Zealand speedster Trent Boult, and South African prospect Dewald Brevis are also competing.

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SQUADS OF ALL TEAMS

Los Angeles Knight Riders

Sunil Narine (c), Ali Khan, Unmukt Chand, Jaskaran Malhotra, Nitish Kumar, Corne Dry, Ali Sheikh, Saif Badar, Shadley van Schalkwyk, Bhaskar Yadram, Andre Russell, Jason Roy, Lockie Ferguson, Martin Guptill, Adam Zampa, Rilee Rossouw, Spencer Johnson, Gajanand Singh

MI New York

Kieron Pollard (c), Steven Taylor, Hammad Azam, Ehsan Adil, Nosthush Kenjige, Monank Patel (wk), Sarabjit Ladda, Shayan Jahangir (wk), Kyle Phillip, Saideep Ganesh, Trent Boult, Rashid, Khan, Tim David, Dewald Brevis, David Wiese, Kagiso Rabada, Nicholas Pooran, Jason Behrendorff, Jasdeep Singh

San Francisco Unicorns

Aaron Finch (c), Corey Anderson, Liam Plunkett, Tajinder Singh, Chaitanya Bishnoi, Carmi Le Roux, Brody Couch, David White, Smit Patel, Sanjay Krishnamurthi, Marcus Stoinis, Lungi Ngidi, Matthew Wade, Qais Ahmad, Finn Allen, Mackenzie Harvey, Haris Rauf, Shadab Khan, Amila Aponso

Eyes on the prize! #SFOUnicorns #MLCricket #MLC2023 pic.twitter.com/o3gmdMKRMk

— San Francisco Unicorns (@SFOUnicorns) July 13, 2023

Seattle Orcas

Wayne Parnell (c), Harmeet Singh, Shehan Jayasuriya, Shubham Ranjane, Cameron Gannon, Aaron Jones, Nauman Anwar, Phani Simhadri, Angelo Perera, Matthew Tromp, Quinton de Kock, Dasun Shanaka, Andrew Tye, Heinrich Klaasen, Dwaine Pretorius, Nisarg Patel, Shimron Hetmyer, Imad Wasim, Hayden Walsh Jr

Texas Super Kings

Faf du Plessis (c), Rusty Theron, Calvin Savage, Lahiru Milantha, Milind Kumar, Sami Aslam, Cameron Stevenson, Cody Chetty, Zia Shahzad, Saiteja Mukkamalla, Devon Conway, Mitchell Santner, Daniel Sams, David Miller, Gerald Coetzee, Dwayne Bravo, Ambati Rayudu, Mohammad Mohsin, Imran Tahir

Washington Freedom

Moises Henriques (c), Andries Gous, Mukhtar Ahmed, Obus Pienaar, Saurabh Netravalkar, Saad Ali, Dane Piedt, Sujith Gowda, Justin Dill, Akhilesh Bodugum, Anrich Nortje, Marco Jansen, Glenn Phillips, Adam Milne, Josh Philippe, Ben Dwarshuis, Akeal Hosein, Usman Rafiq, Tanveer Sangha

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