Washington Freedom by Indian American Sanjay Govil will give the capital its own professional cricket team for the first time
Our Bureau
Washington
The world’s second most popular sport, cricket, will soon be sweeping off US too. Indian American entrepreneur Sanjay Govil has formed the US capital’s first-ever professional cricket team to participate in the Major League Cricket (MLC), a new T20 franchise league in the United States.
Washington Freedom will represent Washington, DC, in the inaugural edition of MLC in July. The team unveiled its name and logo recently with the mark featuring patriotic red, white and blue colors, stars from the Washington, DC, city flag, and a bat and ball representing cricket. “The team’s mark and colors are a perfect fit for a team from the nation’s capital to compete on the global stage MLC provides for the world’s second most popular sport, which has more than 2.5 billion fans,” said Govil.
“The Washington, DC, area is home to hundreds of thousands of cricket fans, and it’s an honor to be able to bring a professional team to the nation’s capital with the Washington Freedom to compete in the ground-breaking Major League Cricket championship this summer,” continued Govil, lead investor of Washington Freedom.
The 2023 season will feature 19 matches to be played over 18 days, opening on July 13 and building up to the first-ever MLC championship final to take place on July 30, 2023. The Freedom will compete alongside teams representing Texas, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Seattle, playing the T20 format of the game.
“The launch of Major League Cricket will bring an American flavor to the world of cricket, and it’ll be fantastic to see the Washington Freedom take to the pitch representing the nation’s capital this summer,” said Justin Geale, the MLC Tournament Director.
The Freedom has partnered with Australia’s Cricket New South Wales, to lead the preparation of the player roster and services including coaching, sports science and sports medicine, performance analysis and team operations. While the Freedom will not host any home matches in the 2023 season, MLC and the Freedom have already embarked on planning to build a world-class home for the team in the Washington, DC, region.
