The first edition of Major League Cricket (MLC), a six-franchise T20 tournament in the US, is into its last mile, and there have been a few sell-outs already, says Tom Dunmore, the vice president of marketing, MLC. America might be a baseball country, he says, but there’s no reason why cricket can’t be slowly injected into its landscape, especially because newer audiences are willing to look beyond the traditional favourites. The country also has a history with the game—the first ever international cricket match was played between the US and Canada, in 1844, a good 33 years before the first Test match was played between England and Australia. MLC has made a good start, but the focus in the next few years will be on finetuning the platform and building a new audience, Dunmore tells Forbes India in an interview. Edited excerpts:
Q. The group stage of Major League Cricket (MLC) is over. Your first thoughts on T20 cricket in America?
We’ve sold out all the seven games in North Carolina and the first few games in Dallas, although these are relatively small venues. The stadium in Dallas is 6,000-7,000 capacity, while the former is about 3,500. But I’m sure we could have sold many more tickets even if we had larger venues.