WASHINGTON D.C. (March 16, 2023) – The Washington Freedom will give the nation’s capital a professional cricket team of its own for the first time. The newly-named team will represent D.C. in the inaugural edition of Major League Cricket (MLC) this July, a transformative competition that will bring many of the world’s top cricketers to the United States.
The team unveiled its name and logo today, with the mark featuring patriotic red, white and blue colors, stars from the Washington D.C. city flag, and a bat and ball representing cricket, the world’s second most popular sport.
“The Washington D.C. 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 groundbreaking Major League Cricket championship this summer,” said Sanjay Govil, Lead Team Investor, Washington Freedom. “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.”
The Freedom will bowl their first ball in July at a newly-constructed MLC venue, Grand Prairie Stadium, in Grand Prairie, TX within the Dallas Fort Worth metroplex. 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 explosive Twenty20 (T20) format of the game.
The roster for the Freedom will be filled out over the coming week, with multiple marquee overseas stars to be announced and the cream of American domestic cricket to be selected at the MLC Domestic Player Draft on Sunday, March 19 in Houston, TX. Space Center Houston, the official Visitor Center of NASA Johnson Space Center, will provide an iconic venue and backdrop for the league’s first-ever draft. Fans will be able to follow the draft live via a special show to be broadcast on the MLC Network YouTube channel, with further details around this event to be shared soon.
“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, MLC Tournament Director.
The Freedom has partnered with one of the world’s leading cricket entities, Australia’s Cricket New South Wales, to lead preparation of the player roster and provide high performance 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 D.C. region. As announced previously, the team has partnered with George Mason University (Mason) to study the feasibility of a new multi-purpose cricket and baseball facility. The ballpark would be designed to host MLC matches, Mason baseball games, and other events on the University’s Fairfax Campus in the Washington D.C. region.
With a goal to be operational by 2025, the ballpark at Mason would be home to an MLC franchise in the heart of one of the largest cricket-loving populations in the United States and feature an international-grade pitch. More information on these plans will be announced following the conclusion of the feasibility study later this year.