- Minor League Cricket teams to host first “Cricket for the Community Day” at Morgan Hill Outdoor Sports Complex
- International cricket stars available for fan meet and greet and media availability
- Bay Area teams establish new ownership groups with competition underway in inaugural national T20 championship
Minor League Cricket (MiLC) announced today that its first “Cricket for the Community Day” will take place this Saturday, Aug. 14 at Morgan Hill Outdoor Sports Complex in Morgan Hill, CA. The event is free for all fans to attend. The community day of cricket will feature a doubleheader of games in the Toyota Minor League Cricket Championship presented by SLING TV, along with the opportunity for fans to meet and greet with international star cricketers, enjoy food from local food trucks, music and other entertainment.
The doubleheader feature will see the Silicon Valley Strikers host the morning match-up, welcoming the San Diego Surf Riders to Morgan Hill for a 10 AM PST start. In the afternoon, the East Bay Blazers will take on the Surf Riders with the first ball scheduled for 3 PM PST. Multiple international cricketers including Rusty Theron and Saurabh Netravalkar of the USA National Team along with Shehan Jayasuriya of Sri Lanka are expected to play.
The weekend will also see Minor League Cricket welcome the Royal® Brand as a sponsor of the Pacific Conference. The Royal Brand will be on site at Morgan Hill to offer fans sampling and the opportunity to learn more about its Royal Basmati Rice, a culinary showstopper.
“We are thrilled to partner with Minor League Cricket on this special day, inviting the local community to support the expansion of a sport that is widely popular globally,” said Abhinav Arora, President, LT Foods Americas. “The Royal Brand is excited to support the Toyota Minor League Cricket Championship, given our shared value of bringing a great sport from around the world to families and communities in the United States.”
“We are delighted to welcome Royal Brand into the Minor League Cricket family on a day that will introduce this new championship to the Bay Area community with fun activities and a full day of thrilling T20 cricket action featuring multiple international cricket stars,” said Justin Geale, Tournament Director, Minor League Cricket.
The growth of cricket in the Bay Area is further cemented with new ownership established for both the East Bay Blazers and the Silicon Valley Strikers. The Strikers ownership group is led by Jayanth Chakravarthy, a veteran of the Northern California Cricket Association (NCCA) who has led product development at multiple Silicon Valley start-ups. The Blazers group is spearheaded by Biju Nair, former president of the NCCA and a founder of the NCCA Youth Cricket League. Nair is a serial entrepreneur, Chairman of ThinkPalm Technologies and CTO at Alpha Ori Technologies Inc.
“The initiative and effort put in by so many in the cricket community has established a hub for Minor League Cricket in the Bay Area and we are seeing so much excitement develop during this inaugural season for the East Bay Blazers,” said Biju Nair.
“It will be thrilling to see our rising local talent and established international stars take the field together for the Silicon Valley Strikers on Saturday in front of a passionate crowd of fans at Morgan Hill,” said Jayanth Chakravarthy.
The action at Morgan Hill will take place on the third weekend of play for the Toyota Minor League Cricket Championship, the most extensive competition to ever take place in the history of American cricket. The tournament represents a new dawn for the sport in the United States, with 27 participating teams competing over 218 matches scheduled to take place in 21 cities nationwide culminating in a finals weekend on Oct. 2-3. Total prize money of $250,000 for the competition represents the largest purse ever on offer in American cricket.
Minor League Cricket is the only nationwide tournament involving the strongest male players playing against each other at the best available facilities and forms a critical part of the evolving USA Cricket domestic cricket structure and pathway. The primary aim of the tournament is to give a platform and opportunity for the best cricketers in America to showcase their abilities at a national level and build cricket in communities across the country.
The event is free to attend and fans can RSVP for the doubleheader event here. The full schedule and list of all competing 27 teams and their divisional breakdown is available at www.minorleague.cricket.
