ARY Digital Network has secured media rights in Pakistan for the first-ever season of Major League Cricket (MLC), the transformative T20 competition bringing the world’s best players to the United States this July.
The six-team competition starting on 14 July in the USA will be broadcast on A Sports, one of Pakistan’s leading sports TV channels, and live-streamed on the ARY Zap mobile app and website.
The first season of MLC is set to feature world-class international players across the six participating teams – Los Angeles Knight Riders, MI New York, San Francisco Unicorns, Seattle Orcas, Texas Super Kings and Washington Freedom. The inaugural season will be played in a round-robin format with the four best-performing teams competing in a multi-game playoff and final round to decide a champion, to be crowned on July 30.
The star-studded MLC player roster includes Pakistan’s Shadab Khan, Haris Rauf, and Imad Wasim. Former Pakistani players Sami Aslam, Nauman Anwar, Hammad Azam, Ehsan Adil, and Mukhtar Ahmed are also featuring in MLC this season.
International cricket stars Kieron Pollard, Rashid Khan, Jason Roy, Kagiso Rabada, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, and Marcus Stoinis are some of the other leading players taking part in the first edition of MLC, to be played in Texas and North Carolina.
“The launch of a ground-breaking professional cricket tournament in the USA is an exciting development and I am glad that ARY is part of this new venture as the MLC’s official broadcast partner in Pakistan,” said Salman Iqbal, ARY Digital Founder and CEO.
“Cricket is making a grand entry into a market that holds huge potential and we hope that the audiences in Pakistan will enjoy our coverage of these matches.”
“We are thrilled to partner with ARY and deliver the adrenaline-packed T20 action Major League Cricket will feature to viewers across Pakistan,” said Tom Dunmore, Vice-president of Marketing, Major League Cricket.
“We know how passionate fans in Pakistan are about cricket, and we’re excited that they will have the chance to see their favourite stars like Shadab Khan, Haris Rauf, and Imad Wasim compete on an exciting new stage in the United States.”
The partnership between ARY and MLC will ensure the continuation of an exciting cricket season on A Sports and ARY Zap with this year’s historic ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifiers having ended this past Sunday.
ARY’s impressive list of sports content includes the Pakistan Super League, bilateral matches organised by the Pakistan Cricket Board, ICC Men’s and Women’s T20 World Cups, the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, SA20, FairBreak Invitational T20, Formula 1, and La Liga.