Silicon Valley Strikers

Last updated

Silicon Valley Strikers
Silicon Valley Strikers Logo.png
League Minor League Cricket
ConferenceWestern Division (Pacific Conference)
Personnel
Captain Unmukt Chand
OwnerStanford Strikers LLC
Team information
City Silicon Valley, California
Colours  Cyan, and   Blue.
Founded2020;3 years ago (2020)
Home groundMorgan Hills Outdoor Sports Complex
History
MiLC  wins1 (2021)
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Kit body.svg
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T20 kit

The Silicon Valley Strikers are an American professional Twenty20 franchise cricket team that compete in Minor League Cricket (MiLC). The team is based in Silicon Valley, California. It was formed in 2020 as part of 24 original teams to compete in Minor League Cricket. [1] The franchise is owned by Stanford Strikers LLC. [2]

Contents

The team's home ground is Morgan Hills Outdoor Sports Complex, located in Morgan Hill, California. [3] Pranay Suri was named as captain for the 2023 Minor league season, replacing Unmukt Chand. [4]

The current leading run-scorer is Unmukt Chand, [5] with the highest wicket-taker being Pranay Suri. [6]

Franchise history

Background

Talks of an American Twenty20 league started in November 2018 just before USA Cricket became the new governing body of cricket in the United States. [7] [8] In May 2021, USA Cricket announced they had accepted a bid by American Cricket Enterprises (ACE) for a US$1 billion investment covering the league and other investments benefitting the U.S. national teams. [9]

In an Annual General Meeting on February 21, 2020, it was announced that USA Cricket was planning to launch Major League Cricket in 2021 and Minor League Cricket that summer, [10] but it was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic [11] and due to the lack of high-quality cricket stadiums in the USA. [12] Major League Cricket was pushed to a summer-2023 launch [13] and Minor League Cricket was pushed back to July 31, 2021. [14]

USA Cricket CEO Iain Higgins also pointed out cities such as New York City, Houston and Los Angeles with a large cricket fanbase, and targeted them among others as launch cities for Minor League Cricket. [15]

Exhibition league

In July 2020, the player registration for the Minor League Cricket exhibition league began. [16] On August 15, 2020, USA Cricket announced the teams participating in the exhibition league matches, also listing the owners for each team. [17] The draft for the exhibition league began on August 22, 2020, [18] with the Silicon Valley Strikers releasing their squad on August 24. [19] Shadley van Schalkwyk was later named as captain for the Silicon Valley Strikers in the exhibition league. [19]

2021 season

After the conclusion of the exhibition league, USA Cricket announced that they were planning to launch the inaugural season of Minor League Cricket in spring 2021. [20] Ahead of the official season, which was announced to kick off on July 31, [21] they announced Unmukt Chand as captain and Pranay Suri as vice-captain (although originally Suri was captain, due to Chand not being called in the squad until the third week [22] ). [4]

In their first match of the season, the Strikers defeated the Thunderbolts by 2 wickets. [23] They then went on to win against the Master Blasters, [24] the Surf Riders twice, [25] [26] the Blazers twice, [25] the Lashings, [27] the Grizzlies twice, [26] [27] and the Thunderbolts again. [28] [29] They additionally lost against the Lashings, [23] the Master Blasters, [30] and the Thunderbolts [31] throughout the group stage. They placed 2nd in their group, thus qualifying the Strikers for the quarter-finals. [32]

In the quarter-finals, the Strikers won against the Austin Athletics in a best-of-3 series 2-1, qualifying them for the semi-finals. [33] During the semi-finals, the Strikers bowled out the Grizzlies for 135 to win by 33 runs and take them to the finals. [34] In the finals, they won against the Stallions by 6 wickets to win their maiden MiLC title. [35]

2022 season

Ahead of the 2022 season, Major League Cricket announced that the draft for that season would take place on May 12. [36]

Current squad

NameNationalityBirth dateBatting styleBowling styleYear signedNotes
Batsmen
Arsh BuchFlag of the United States.svg  United States 22 October 1994 (age 29)Right-handedRight-arm medium 2021
Narsingh Deonarine Flag of Guyana.svg  Guyana 16 August 1983 (age 40)Left-handedRight-arm off-break 2020Overseas
Rohith RamkumarFlag of the United States.svg  United States 18 January 1985 (age 38)Right-handedRight-arm medium 2021
Roshon Primus Flag of Barbados.svg  Barbados 14 August 1995 (age 28)Right-handedLeft-arm medium 2021Overseas
Unmukt Chand Flag of India.svg  India 26 March 1993 (age 30)Right-handedRight-arm off-break 2021Overseas captain
All-rounders
Anoop KrishnanFlag of the United States.svg  United States 6 March 1987 (age 36)Right-handedRight-arm medium 2021
Dev ThadaniFlag of the United States.svg  United States 17 September 1998 (age 25)Right-handedRight-arm medium 2021
Dilpreet BillingFlag of the United States.svg  United States 15 July 1991 (age 32)Right-handedRight-arm fast 2020
Gary Graham Flag of Jamaica.svg  Jamaica 6 August 1982 (age 41)Right-handedRight-arm medium 2020Overseas
Pranay SuriFlag of the United States.svg  United States 22 December 1992 (age 30)Right-handedRight-arm off-break 2020 Vice-captain
Rushil UgarkarFlag of the United States.svg  United States 29 August 1998 (age 25)Right-handedRight-arm fast medium 2021
Shehan Jayasuriya Flag of Sri Lanka.svg  Sri Lanka 12 September 1991 (age 32)Left-handedRight-arm off break 2021Overseas
Srinivas RaghavanFlag of the United States.svg  United States 4 December 1992 (age 30)Right-handedRight-arm off break 2020
Umang ParikhFlag of the United States.svg  United States 25 June 1981 (age 42)Right-handedRight-arm medium 2021
Bowlers
Abhishek Paradkar Flag of the United States.svg  United States 8 November 2000 (age 23)Left-handedLeft-handed medium 2021
Kulvinder SinghFlag of the United States.svg  United States 25 April 1983 (age 40)Right-handedLeft-arm medium 2021
Saurabh Netravalkar Flag of the United States.svg  United States 16 October 1991 (age 32)Right-handedLeft-arm medium 2021
Wicket-keepers
Rahul Jariwala Flag of the United States.svg  United States 3 June 2004 (age 19)Right-handed2020

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References

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  2. ↑ Hays, Nate (August 18, 2020). "Minor League Cricket announces teams and owners list, draft on August 22, exhibition games tentative". Emerging Cricket. Retrieved December 14, 2021.
  3. ↑ "Minor League Division Preview Series - Western". Major League Cricket . August 1, 2021. Retrieved December 14, 2021.
  4. 1 2 "Pre-Draft Selections Confirmed by 21 Minor League Cricket Teams as Draft Day Looms". USA Cricket . June 4, 2021. Retrieved December 14, 2021.
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  6. ↑ "Silicon Valley Strikers Bowling - Minor League Cricket". CricClubs.com. Retrieved December 14, 2021.
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  17. ↑ "Minor League Cricket Announces Franchise Owners and Draft Update". USA Cricket . August 15, 2020. Retrieved December 15, 2021.
  18. ↑ "Inaugural Minor League Cricket Draft to Take Place Today". USA Cricket . August 22, 2020. Retrieved December 15, 2021.
  19. 1 2 "Minor League Cricket Draft results with 15 Squads Selected". USA Cricket . August 24, 2020. Retrieved September 15, 2021.
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  26. 1 2 Patel, Smit (September 2, 2021). "Minor Cricket League Week 5: Ricardo Powell turns back the clock". CricBuzz. Retrieved December 16, 2021.
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