Explained: Major League Cricket's IPL connection, format, venue, squads, dates and all you need to know

T20 leagues have been popping across the world like mushrooms, and their new destination is the United States of America. This is the first time franchise cricket will be played in the US and the league's name is Major League Cricket (MLC). A total of six teams will compete from July 13 (July 14 in India) at two venues. Here's everything you need to know about MLC before its inaugural season:

What are the teams?

There are six teams which will take part in the maiden MLC season: Los Angeles Knight Riders, MI New York, San Francisco Unicorns, Seattle Orcas, Texas Super Kings and Washington Freedom.

Four of these teams are owned by IPL owners, that is, Los Angeles by Kolkata Knight Riders; New York by Mumbai Indians (MI); Texas by Chennai Super Kings and Seattle Orcas by Delhi Capitals owners GMR group.

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How many matches will be played and in what format?

A total of 19 matches will be played in the league - 15 in group-stage.

The other four playoff matches are: one eliminator, two qualifiers and a final. The group stage will be held in round robin format, that is, each team will play the other five once. The top four will move into the second round or playoffs.

The playoffs will be played in IPL format of eliminator, qualifiers and final.

What are the dates and time?

The tournament kicks off on July 13 (July 14, 6 am in India) and the last group-stage game will played on July 25 (July 26, 4 am in India). The playoffs start a day after on July 27 (July 28 in India) with the final taking place on July 30 (July 31 in India).

Where will the matches be held?

The 15 group-stage games will be played across two venues: Grand Prairie Stadium in Texas and Church Street Park Stadium in Morrisville, North Carolina.

First eight games of the league will be played in Texas while the next seven will be held at Morrisville. All four playoff games will be played in Grand Prairie, Texas.

How big are the squads, how many foreign players are allowed in playing XI?

Each team is bound to have minimum of 16 players and a maximum of 19 players.

The squads must have at least one U-23 USA player and 10 domestic players.

A maximum of nine foreign players can be added to each squad.

The playing XIs can have a maximum of six foreign players.

What are the big international names to take part in MLC?

A lot of foreign internationals are going to feature in the inaugural MLC season.

Some of the big names are: Jason Roy from England; Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Kieron Pollard and Shimron Hetmyer from West Indies; Rashid Khan from Afghanistan; Aaron Finch and Marcus Stoinis from Australia; Faf du Plessis, David Miller, Quinton de Kock, Anrich Nortje and Marco Jansen from South Africa; Corey Anderson, Devon Conway and Trent Boult from New Zealand; and Sikandar Raza from Zimbabwe.

Who are the captains?

All six teams will be led by foreign players.

Here are the names:

Los Angeles Knight Riders - Sunil Narine, Texas Super Kings - Faf du Plessis, Seattle Orcas - Wayne Parnell, MI New York - Kieron Pollard, San Francisco Unicorns - Aaron Finch, and Washington Freedom - Moises Henriques.

Where can the matches be watched live on TV?

The MLC will be shown live in major cricket markets of the world.

Here are details:

Willow TV - USA and Canada

Fox - Australia

SKY NZ - New Zealand

A Sports - Pakistan

BT Sport - UK

Sports18 and Jio - India

SportsMax - Caribbean

SuperSport - South Africa.

Are any Indian players playing in the league?

There are a few Indian players who are taking part in the inaugural MLC season and all of them have retired from the Indian domestic circuit.

The players are: Harmeet Singh (part of India's 2012 U-19 World Cup-winning team), Unmukt Chand (2012 U-19 World Cup-winning team captain), Chaitanya Bishnoi, Samit Patel, Shubham Ranjane and Tajinder Singh.

What are the full squads?

Here are the full squads for all six teams:

LA Knight Riders: Saif Badar, Unmukt Chand, Corne Dry, Lockie Ferguson, Martin Guptill, Spencer Johnson, Ali Khan, Nitish Kumar, Jaskaran Malhotra, Sunil Narine, Rilee Rossouw, Jason Roy, Andre Russell, Ali Sheikh, Gajanand Singh, Shadley Van Schalkwyk, Bhaskar Yadram, and Adam Zampa

San Francisco Unicorns: Qais Ahmad, Finn Allen, Corey Anderson, Amila Aponso, Chaitanya Bishnoi, Brody Couch, Aaron Finch, Mackenzie Harvey, Shadab Khan, Sanjay Krishnamurthi, Carmi Le Roux, Lungi Ngidi, Smit Patel, Liam Plunkett, Haris Rauf, Tajinder Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade, and David White

MI New York: Ehsan Adil, Hammad Azam, Jason Behrendorff, Trent Boult, Dewald Brevis, Tim David, Saideep Ganesh, Shayan Jahangir, Nosthush Kenjige, Rashid Khan, Sarbjeet Ladda, Monank Patel, Kieron Pollard, Nicholas Pooran, Kagiso Rabada, Jessy Singh, Steven Taylor, and David Wiese

Seattle Orcas: Nauman Anwar, Quinton de Kock, Cameroon Gannon, Shehan Jayasuriya, Aaron Jones, Heinrich Klaasen, Wayne Parnell, Nisarg Patel, Angelo Perera, Shubham Ranjane, Dasun Shanaka, Phani Simhadri, Harmeet Singh, Matthew Tromp, and Andrew Tye

Washington Freedom: Mukhtar Ahmed, Saad Ali, Akhilesh Bodugum, Justin Dill, Ben Dwarshuis, Andries Gous, Sujith Gowda, Moises Henriques, Marco Jansen, Adam Milne, Saurabh Netravalkar, Anrich Nortje, Josh Philippe, Glenn Phillips, Dane Piedt, Obus Piennar, and Usman Rafiq

Texas Super Kings: Sami Aslam, Dwayne Bravo, Cody Chetty, Gerald Coetzee, Devon Conway, Faf du Plessis, Milind Kumar, Lahiru Milantha, David Miller, Mohammad Mohsin, Saiteja Mukkamalla, Daniel Sams, Mitchell Santner, Calvin Savage, Zia Shahzad, Cameron Stevenson, and Rusty Theron

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