The Aussies helping shape Major League Cricket

Graham Manou certainly didn't think in cricket he'd ever find himself at NASA.

Yet the one-Test wicketkeeper, now Cricket Victoria high performance manager, was there at the Space Centre in Houston calling the shots prior to launch in March.

It was draft night in Texas for Major League Cricket's inaugural season – the United States' foray into T20 franchise cricket – and some of Australian cricket's most influential figures were right in the thick of it.

A few days earlier, MLC tournament director Justin Geale – who was born in Canberra and grew up in Wagga Wagga, and later spent eight years in cricket operations at the Indian Premier League – was sat next to Manou, CV chief executive Nick Cummins, Victorian assistant coach Ben Rohrer and Cricket NSW Head of Male Cricket Michael Klinger watching America's best domestic talent at a 13-day draft combine.

Among them was Victorian and Melbourne Stars fast bowler Brody Couch, one of four 'Australian-American' prospects up for grabs in the draft.

"It was quite surreal," Geale recalls, "we're sitting in Houston in the middle of nowhere at these six turf cricket fields just thinking 'we could be anywhere in the world, but we're all together, Australians here in Houston'.

"It's been a learning curve for them as well, a steep one when you come from somewhere like the Big Bash, which is now well established, really well run, well organised, promoted and defined, to something a bit new and unknown like this."

What is Major League Cricket?

After South Africa (SA20) and the United Arab Emirates (International League T20), the US is set to become the third nation to launch a new domestic T20 league in 2023.

Geale agrees "there is too much cricket at the moment", but he also believes the US has a significant advantage.

"We've got that clear window," he tells cricket.com.au from his home just outside of Chicago.

"Around that Christmas time this year you had Big Bash, then there was the SA20, there was the UAE T20 going on, Nepal, Bangladesh, all these ones at the same times competing with the same players.

"Our summer here, we can play cricket a lot of the year round depending where in the country you are … down in Florida or LA you've got a longer season.

"Fundamentally, our summer is the opposite to a southern hemisphere summer so really it's the UK that we're going alongside.

"That window helps, we can generally get some of the best players in the world for two or three weeks to come over and play some really good cricket."

Starting on July 13, the six MLC teams will play 19 games in 18 days mostly at Grand Prairie Stadium – a former baseball park that's been converted into the league's new 7200-seat purpose-built home near Dallas.

It's already attracting plenty of global superstars too, including Aaron Finch and Marcus Stoinis (San Francisco Unicorns), Mitch Marsh and Quinton de Kock (Seattle Orcas), and Anrich Nortje and Wanindu Hasaranga (Washington Freedom).

"As a kid growing up, we're pretty heavily influenced by American sport and culture, so I think there's a degree of curiosity about cricket in this market and the players are no different to us," Geale says.

"They're quite keen to come and see and do something new."

Another advantage according to Geale is the scale of commercial opportunity with sponsors and broadcasting in the US sports market.

And while there have been previous attempts to establish a cricket competition in the USA – such as Pro Cricket in 2004 – this iteration has the backing of more than a dozen of America's most successful business leaders, including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Adobe chairman and CEO Shantanu Narayen.

Three IPL franchises have also bought in – Los Angeles Knight Riders (Kolkata), MI New York (Mumbai Indians) and Texas Super Kings (Chennai), while GMR Group, the co-owner of the Delhi Capitals, have partnered with the Seattle Orcas.

"The level of investment we have, being privately funded out of Silicon Valley, you've got some pretty high-net-worth individuals … that are personally invested in this," Geale says.

"We'll be able to drive a really competitive salary cap and we're there from day one."

Why are Victoria and NSW involved?

Unlike the four IPL teams who have extensive experience running a cricket program, the lead investors of the San Francisco and Washington franchises don't.

Unicorns pair Anand Rajaraman and Venky Harinarayan are the founding partners at Milliways Ventures and Rocketship.vc, while Freedom's lead investor Sanjay Govil is the founder and chairman of Infinite Computer Solutions and CEO of Zyter.

Both franchises were therefore looking to partner with an existing professional organisation to run their respective cricket departments and help with the recruitment of players and coaches, establish training, sports science and sports medicine programs, and facilitate match day operations.

That's where Cricket Victoria and Cricket NSW come in – with more than 130 years of delivering cricket in their respective states, they are San Francisco and Washington's high performance partners.

It's how Manou and Klinger found themselves at NASA on March 19 trying to build a roster for their respective teams having only laid eyes on most of the domestic talent over the preceding two weeks at the draft combine.

"The interesting part for us was that you felt at times perhaps we're going in very blind here," Manou tells cricket.com.au after returning to Melbourne. "But heading across and seeing them play and being around the combine was certainly worth us going and doing that.

"We felt quite lucky in the way we thought the draft would play out in terms of what players would and wouldn't be available at different times was right, which probably suggests there was some clear bands in terms of the talent."

Klinger adds: "We did a lot of research before heading over with our analysts … (but) the four days of two matches each day (at the combine) definitely opened our eyes a little bit more."

What's in it for the two states?

It's a fair question – how does partnering with a US-based franchise help with the success of NSW in the Marsh Sheffield Shield or the two Sydney clubs in the KFC BBL?

Beyond the obvious links it establishes for players to be picked up by their state's MLC club, Geale believes most sporting organisations in Australia realise that a lot of the growth opportunities are offshore.

"It's another way for them to expand their footprint in a global cricket world, which is changing rapidly all the time," he says.

Along with establishing links for players, there will also be opportunities for coaches, physiotherapists, team operations staff and analysts from Victoria and NSW to get experience in a new environment.

"The cricket landscape is changing very quickly so to be directly involved in the way cricket's moving and part of the landscape that's T20 franchise cricket … it was obviously a very attractive tournament to be involved in," Klinger says.

But both states also understand their first obligation is ensuring their Australian players and squads are being serviced well.

"In the first year, we'll make it a relatively skeleton staff," Manou says.

"We've got some high-quality senior players in (former England fast bowler) Liam Plunkett and Corey Anderson (ex-New Zealand) who will no doubt play more than just playing role, both are equally as good as any leader that I've come across and have both shown a lot of interest in developing as coaches and getting involved in off field management as well."

For Geale and the sport in the US, the partnership goes beyond just Major League Cricket (which received official sanctioning from the governing body, USA Cricket, last month).

"Importantly, it opens up opportunities … I really think some of our younger players could benefit from six or eight weeks or a season in grade cricket, that's really going to elevate their cricket being around better cricketers," he says.

"That's one of the appeals for us with the Australian market and the season works nicely for that.

"The same as coaching staff, the same if you look beyond that at curators, at event operations staff, so that summer works nicely, a lot of six or seven-month jobs there, they can come over here for a few months."

Klinger revealed NSW would also explore having a coach based in Washington or the US to work with their players weekly, while Manou says the Australian pathway system would also benefit from the relationship with potential opportunities for Premier cricketers to play in minor league teams.

"It might be playing a Premier Cricket season, it might be getting involved with one of our two BBL teams and training with them for a few weeks and being part of a really good set-up with two very experienced coaches in Greg Shipperd (Sydney Sixers) and Trevor Bayliss (Sydney Thunder), we're certainly looking at ways we can help those individuals become better cricketers, but also help cricket in America overall," Klinger says.

There are 'Australian-American' players?

Cameron Stevenson says he's never been one to get "super nervous" but as he sat in his office in Melbourne about midday on Monday, March 20 watching Geale announce each pick, he couldn't look and had to step away from his computer.

Half a world away at NASA, the United States' best players were up for grabs and Stevenson – by virtue of his mum's heritage – was one of the top prospects.

An engineer by day whose firm SPORTENG has been helping the MLC develop their new Grand Prairie Stadium, the 30-year-old says being part of the inaugural draft had the "heart pounding".

"I was too nervous to look once we started getting into the later rounds that I might not go, and I actually stepped away from my computer," Stevenson, who was part of Tasmania's list until 2018, recalls to cricket.com.au.

Brody Couch – whose mum was also born in the US – was another watching along on YouTube from back home in Victoria, having just returned from the draft combine in Texas.

Finally, in the sixth round, Geale read out Stevenson's name – pick 31 to the Texas Super Kings – and two picks later the Australian-American tournament director was back at the lectern announcing Couch's selection by the San Francisco Unicorns.

The most experienced Aussie 'local' Cameron Gannon – who like the other two qualifies as a US domestic player due to his mum – had been picked up two rounds earlier by the Seattle Orcas, where he has been joined current West Australian teammate Mitch Marsh as an overseas recruit, though Marsh's availability for the tournament is now under threat due to his inclusion in Australia's Ashes squad.

Former Victorian and current Hampshire allrounder Ian Holland – who was born in the midwestern US state of Wisconsin – was the other 'Australian-American' in the draft pool, but he missed out on selection.

"It was a bit of relief in the end just to know that I'm going to be part of it all in the inaugural season," Couch says.

"I was definitely nervous at the time because I was hoping to go a bit sooner than I did but, when I heard my named called, I was just relieved."

Couch – whose mum grew up on a dairy farm at Albany in upstate New York where her family still reside – had been at the combine from March 4-16, which he says helped him determine where he thought his ability was compared to the other local players.

"It was all completely new," the 23-year-old recalls, "I had a roommate (Matthew Tromp, pick 49 to Seattle Orcas) who I'd never met before.

"It was a lot less structured and there was a big onus on myself just to put in what I wanted to get out of having that time over there.

"It was quite refreshing for me actually … being one of the very few Aussies over there at the time that I went, I put myself out of my comfort zone a little bit and built some connections with people who I probably never thought I would.

"The guys were really welcoming and just love their cricket … so it was no different to back here in that sense."

What's the depth of American talent like?

"There's a lot more cricket in the US already than people realise," says Stevenson, who has played 18 ODIs and four T20Is for the USA owing to his mum being born Arizona and raised in California.

"There's definitely room for cricket over there and enough interest to build cricket in the US into something that's a little bit more mainstream than what it is now.

"These guys are as good as I've seen in terms of raw talent. The ability that they've got is up there with any state cricketer that I've seen here.

"It's a really difficult environment to flourish as a cricketer because of the lack of first-class facilities and the level of competition historically hasn't been there to help these guys hone their game at a really high level."

Both Manou and Klinger admit they were "pleasantly surprised" at the skills on display from the local US players at the draft combine.

The fact that Gannon was drafted in the fourth round, and Couch and Stevenson – all who have played first-class cricket and in the Big Bash, with Stevenson also featuring for the US national team as recently as last September – were taken in the sixth round, attests to this.

Only eight of the 48 non-rookie players drafted to MLC teams haven't played first-class cricket and not even being a reigning ODI World Cup champion was enough to get Plunkett picked in the first round.

And former New Zealand allrounder Anderson, former Indian under-19 captain Unmukt Chand, Plunkett, No.1 MLC draft pick Harmeet Singh and former Punjab leg-spinner Sarabjit Ladda all have IPL experience.

"The depth of talent is there, there's no doubt about that," Klinger says.

"There's a lot of ex-players from the subcontinent who've played international cricket or been part of IPL franchises or PSL (Pakistan Super League) franchises. There were players who had been in first-class systems in the subcontinent, first-class systems in South Africa, who left for different reasons.

"So there was definitely a positive feel about the quality that was there and that they'd be able to match it against some of our high quality overseas players as well."

Manou adds: "There was certainly a band of players that could play and have played first-class cricket and there was quite a significant band of players that would easily fit into Premier first-grade across (Australia).

"It is and has been a bit of a sleeping giant there for a while. And hopefully this is the catalyst to make it grow."

With at least five players in each team's starting XI required to be domestic players, which is more than the two required in fellow associate nation the UAE's ILT20 tournament, that depth will be needed to ensure the quality of the product in its first season remains high.

With a maximum of six overseas recruits allowed in the XI and nine in the squad, along with 10 domestic players on the roster, each franchise was also required to pick a rookie from the under-23 age group in the ninth round of the draft.

"When I first got to America, I was actually pleasantly surprised at how good the cricket was here, there's literally thousands of leagues played across the country," Geale says.

"What I was probably most disappointed or shocked at was the infrastructure and where we play. A lot of it is soccer fields, baseball diamonds, which aren't perfect, it's guys diving around with no faith in the outfield or councils that couldn't cut the grass any lower because baseball is 'this' height.

"It's taken three years to try and build a domestic program working with USA Cricket, working with the local leagues to try and build a pathway to the national team and to really give our domestic players the best chance.

"So when the major league comes around, it's got to be about the cricket, the cricket has got to be a good product.

"We can bring 'Finchy' and all the boys across but if the domestic players aren't up for it, it won't work. We're really confident that we've spent these three years building up our domestic programs, so the strength of the game from day one is going to be really good."