2025 Major League Cricket players' draft

2025 Major League Cricket players' draft
General information
Sport	Cricket
Date(s)	February 20, 2025
Time	8 p.m. ET
Network(s)	Willow TV YouTube Facebook
Overview
League	Major League Cricket
Teams	6
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The 2025 Major League Cricket players' draft was held on February 20, 2025, ahead of the 2025 Major League Cricket season for teams to pick domestic players. ^[1] Like the previous year, the draft was held virtually and not by broadcast. The results of the draft were released by Major League Cricket via their social media platforms.

The format of the draft was same as the previous season, it was conducted over 10 rounds divided on the basis of salary cap, using the "snake" format. A total of 16 picks were made in the final draft. ^[2]

Salary cap

The draft had fixed salary caps for each round, with the highest being $75,000 in the first round and the lowest being $10,000 in the tenth round. ^[3]

• First Round – $75,000
• Second Round – $65,000
• Third Round – $60,000
• Fourth Round – $50,000
• Fifth Round – $40,000
• Sixth Round – $35,000
• Seventh Round – $25,000
• Eighth Round – $20,000
• Ninth Round – $15,000
• Tenth Round – $10,000

Retained players

The retention window for the third season was open till February 13, 2025, and the teams were allowed retain any number of domestic players within this deadline. ^{[1] [4]} Ahead of the draft, many teams decided to let go of marquee players like Travis Head, Kagiso Rabada, and Daryl Mitchell. ^[5] The Freedom had the most retentions with 15 players, while the Orcas had the least retentions with just 7. ^[6]

Retained overseas players for the 2024 Major League Cricket season Player Nationality Los Angeles Knight Riders Spencer Johnson   Australia Sunil Narine   West Indies Andre Russell   West Indies MI New York Trent Boult   New Zealand Rashid Khan   Afghanistan Nicholas Pooran   West Indies Kieron Pollard   West Indies San Francisco Unicorns Finn Allen   New Zealand Jake Fraser-McGurk   Australia Haris Rauf   Pakistan Matthew Short   Australia Seattle Orcas Heinrich Klaasen   South Africa Ryan Rickelton   South Africa Texas Super Kings Devon Conway   New Zealand Faf du Plessis   South Africa Marcus Stoinis   Australia Noor Ahmad   Afghanistan Washington Freedom Glenn Maxwell   Australia Jack Edwards   Australia Lockie Ferguson   New Zealand Marco Jansen   South Africa Rachin Ravindra   New Zealand Steve Smith   Australia

Retained domestic players for the 2024 Major League Cricket season Player Salary cap Los Angeles Knight Riders Adithya Ganesh $75,000 Ali Khan $75,000 Unmukt Chand $65,000 Nitish Kumar $40,000 Corné Dry $20,000 Saif Badar $15,000 Shadley van Schalkwyk $10,000 Matthew Tromp $5,000 MI New York Ehsan Adil $50,000 Nosthush Kenjige $40,000 Monank Patel $35,000 Heath Richards $20,000 Sunny Patel $10,000 Rushil Ugarkar $5,000 San Francisco Unicorns Corey Anderson $75,000 Hassan Khan $75,000 Liam Plunkett $65,000 Carmi le Roux $35,000 Brody Couch $25,000 Karima Gore $10,000 Sanjay Krishnamurthi $2,500 Juanoy Drysdale — Seattle Orcas Harmeet Singh $75,000 Cameron Gannon $40,000 Aaron Jones $20,000 Ayan Desai $5,000 Texas Super Kings Joshua Tromp $75,000 Calvin Savage $65,000 Milind Kumar $40,000 Saiteja Mukkamalla $2,500 Mohammad Mohsin — Zia-ul-Haq — Washington Freedom Andries Gous $75,000 Mukhtar Ahmed $65,000 Obus Pienaar $50,000 Saurabh Netravalkar $40,000 Amila Aponso $25,000 Ian Holland $25,000 Justin Dill $10,000 Lahiru Milantha $10,000 Yasir Mohammad $5,000

Draft selections

Domestic draft

No players were drafted by the teams in the third, fourth and fifth rounds. So, the 6th pick of the draft was directly made in the sixth round. ^[7]

First round selections made during the draft

Pick	Player	Team	MiLC Team
1	Jessy Singh	Seattle Orcas	New Jersey Stallions
2	Shubham Ranjane	Texas Super Kings	Dallas Xforia Giants

Fourth round selections made during the draft

Pick	Player	Team	MiLC Team
3	Agni Chopra	MI New York	–
4	Tajinder Singh	MI New York	Chicago Kingsmen

Fifth round selections made during the draft

Pick	Player	Team	MiLC Team
5	Sujit Nayak	Seattle Orcas	Seattle Thunderbolts

Seventh round selections made during the draft

Pick	Player	Team	MiLC Team
6	Steven Taylor	Seattle Orcas	Atlanta Fire

Eighth round selections made during the draft

Pick	Player	Team	MiLC Team
7	Shayan Jahangir	Seattle Orcas	Silicon Valley Strikers
8	Kunwarjit Singh	MI New York	–

Ninth round selections made during the draft

Pick	Player	Team	MiLC Team
9	Karthik Gattepalli	LA Knight Riders	Houston Hurricanes
10	Sharad Lumba	MI New York	–
11	Stephen Wiig	Texas Super Kings	New Jersey Stallions

Tenth round selections made during the draft

Pick	Player	Team	MiLC Team
12	Hammad Azam	San Francisco Unicorns	Chicago Kingsmen
13	Abhishek Paradkar	Washington Freedom	East Bay Blazers

Rookie (U23) round selections made during the draft

Pick	Player	Team	MiLC Team
14	Rahul Jariwala	Seattle Orcas	Golden State Grizzlies
15	Adam Khan	Texas Super Kings	Ft. Lauderdale Lions
16	Achilles Browne	San Francisco Unicorns	Ft. Lauderdale Lions

Overseas signings

The following players were directly signed by teams ahead of the 2025 season.

Overseas signings for the 2025 Major League Cricket season

Player	Nationality	Team	Ref.
Alex Hales	England	Los Angeles Knight Riders	–

References

1. Hays, Nate (February 26, 2025). "2025 MLC Domestic Draft review, Part 1: USAC and Minor League stars shine". Emerging Cricket. Retrieved April 27, 2025.
2. @MLCricket (February 20, 2025). "THE PICKS ARE IN. 16 domestic players – some stepping onto the MLC stage for the first time, others ready to build on past success – have been drafted!!! Who's making headlines this season?!" (Tweet). Retrieved February 21, 2025– via Twitter.
3. Atino, Daisy (February 21, 2025). "Major League Cricket draft sees Agni Chopra and Jasdeep Singh secure top spots". Athlon Sports. Retrieved April 27, 2025.
4. Patel, Smit (February 14, 2025). "MLC Domestic Retentions: Taylor, Jayasuriya, Jahangir & Ranjane head to draft". Cricbuzz . Retrieved February 21, 2025.
5. "Head, Rabada, Miller not retained ahead of MLC 2025 draft". ESPNcricinfo . February 15, 2025. Retrieved February 21, 2025.
6. Atino, Daisy (April 7, 2025). "Inside Seattle Orcas' Strategic Rebuild for MLC's Long-Term Success". Athlon Sports. Retrieved April 27, 2025.
7. Patel, Smit (March 22, 2024). "MLC Domestic Draft: MI New York signs up Mumbai boy Agni Chopra". Cricbuzz . Retrieved March 22, 2024.