Transcript
Speaker: Welcome back. After a short hiatus, To the American Over, a podcast on cricket in the USA. My name is Neil. and i'm dre And I'm so excited that we're finally back to talk about the MLC final. I know it was a few months ago.
Speaker: But man, wasn't that fun? It was awesome. So yeah, so ah me and Dhruv and a couple of buddies went out to see the finals. The final was happening at the Oakland Coliseum. out in california and uh it's actually really interesting because the football team has abandoned them long ago the the baseball team just left this was kind of like a last hurrah for the oakland coliseum so kind of fun for you know any california sports fans out there um But really cool experience. Our friend, Risha, friend of the pod.
Speaker: uh got us really great uh seats right by the you know by the line basically uh and you know we got to see the players that they got dismissed we just come walk 10 feet in front of us yeah which is we were right at the dugout it was incredible Incredible.
Speaker: An exciting match, too. I mean, what did you think? that Look, as a Washington Freedom fan, devastated. Devastated. Because ah Obi almost got us there, man. That last over, those last couple of overs, it felt like he was the only, I mean, across both teams, it felt like he was the only batsman who came up that half century and just...
Speaker: 20 odd balls. Incredible. Cause that pitch was gripping too. So it was very surprising to see him be able to get under the ball. so well. ah yeah That 19th over, incredible. But that 20th over, my God, Ben Shawick's bowling.
Speaker: What can be said about that? you know it You know, I go back and I look at, you know, quick info and kind of the worm was kind of going up and and up and down. It didn't really feel like that, to be honest. ah Like, you know, LAKR kind of came out. They did fine batting wise. Yeah. But it kind of like Washington just kind of fell behind at the beginning. You tell me. But to me, it didn't really feel particularly close until the very end.
Speaker: ah you know I think Sunil Narayan was just kind of a wood chipper out there. He was just destroying people. Yeah. and yeah pnr kind of came back but even by the time it came out It kind of felt like a losing effort. I mean, props to him. I mean, he got really close. I think the the time when I was like, you know, they can actually do it.
Speaker: very last over. I was like, all right, these guys actually can't, it was, I think it was 14 needed off of six, which is very achievable. um So, you know, props for making it kind of. close And in the end, it was a one -run game. Yeah. Which is incredible. I mean, great for the sport, right? Super, super exciting. um i think it was a lot ended up being a lot closer than it felt like to me at the time uh but I mean, I think it was incredible, incredible time all around.
Speaker: i completely agree i i think the first those middle 10 overs in the second innings i was like okay this game is over yeah you know ready to leave i had a flight to catch so i was running out anyway um and ah yeah but But three wickets in the last over, a missed field. a slight missed field and they would have won the game. They would have won the game. They they they halfway ran that second before they got...
Speaker: They got ah run out anyway. Yeah. just Just so exciting. As you said, great, great advertisement for the game. I'm i'm pretty active on Cricket Twitter and and you know mostly lurking. but Everyone.
Speaker: everyone was seeing that that last over on on Twitter. that's That's, you know, incredibly exciting, incredibly, ah you know, incredibly invigorating for, you know, American cricket to be out there.
Speaker: Yeah, and so what did you think of the the atmosphere there? i think that I would say there's like 10 ,000, 15 ,000 people, which is a really good showing. ah you All kinds of folks. A lot of kids were there too. Like a lot of kids, they would... ah I mean, the the ushers didn't like it, but these kids were like... run up down the stand basically out to the dugout because i forget which side i think it was It was freedom. It was freedom. Yeah. So their dugout was right there. And so ah I think we had a couple of celeb sightings too. You might remember.
Speaker: uh but these guys would go out and try and get their like bats or shirts whatever were signed by the players they were coming off or anyone just kind of sitting out there ah So that was super, super cool. i was I see the kids excited, right? And they ran out without their parents, right? So they were really interested in it.
Speaker: And ah the stands are full. A lot lot of really cool people. um out there. Um, And, you know, just the atmosphere coming in, right? Like, so so the the Oakland Coliseum was formerly known as baseball's last dive bar. It kind of feels like you're going to a prison when you walk into it. It's part of the charm.
Speaker: ah But it was alive, man. It was super, super exciting. Yeah, I think the official stat was about 11K fans of the 12K available basically sold out. That's great. Yeah, very absolutely. And it was the same as last year, which despite the FIFA World Cup going on, despite the Women's Cricket World Cup going on.
Speaker: It's still... you know, it still felt like people were out there to have some fun. I mean, we saw, speaking of celebrity sightings, we saw DJ Bravo. We saw Chris Gale, right. Coming up, coming up into the audience.
Speaker: Incredible. so fun So fun to see people like that. Yeah, you know, it it was also pretty neat. I took the BART up from ah from South Bay and it was cool. like the As we remember, a Fremont, Union City kind of heading up that east side. and ah There were so many people, like Indian people, in like cricket jerseys. I saw like Bharat jerseys. I saw all kinds of like franchise league jerseys, all getting on. And so there was probably like a couple hundred people on that train getting off at the Coliseum and heading over, right? And when you walk in, you just see like 5 ,000 or...
Speaker: many thousand people, right? I just kind of flooding in the gates, saw so many jerseys. There's so much pent up excitement, right? uh saw a lot of banners flags and all that coming in um What was your experience coming in? ah Did you get get to get the feel of like, I'm going to a cricket match? Because that's what I felt. when I was growing up.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, i I was running a little bit late and was kind of trickling in. And yet, as soon as I got off the BART, it felt like it was just full of energy. like I think you said this sir you said this to yourself. It felt like you were in a cricketing nation. like i've been yeah I've been to matches in India. I've been to ah you know i've been just to grounds in in the UK.
Speaker: it just feels like You feel that energy surrounded by surrounded by the enthusiasm of the fans who actually want to see a great game. I think one of the things that I was particularly excited about when was ah you could see that there were some people that had picked teams.
Speaker: And that's rare for a sport that's just started, right? um It took the IPL some time for that to pick up. it took It's taking the SA20 some time for that to pick up. But, you know, I saw a ton of people that identified as Washington fans. not
Speaker: as India fans, not as, you know, even Team USA fans, but as folks that were there to see Washington play. And then when we were at the semis, you know, a couple of days before, right, it was the SF Unicorns. So, you know, you're locals, right? People were super thrilled about that. And I think, look, the MLC is the is a type of league.
Speaker: that relies on local attendance because it's not getting massive broadcast viewership it's not getting uh you know it's not getting huge sponsors it's getting good sponsors but it's not getting huge sponsors um And so you need you need people that are local to attend and to be excited about those those teams i think the number one biggest thing that mlc can do and i understand the cost and uh you know logistics parts of this But if you have proper home and away games, that's how you build.
Speaker: That's how you build you know a local local partnership, local excitement.
Speaker: Yeah, I think this is an interesting conversation we should we should have at some point, right? Which is, you look at a lot of upstart leagues, a lot of them do this traveling circus model, or even at the very beginning, the Women's Professional Baseball League did this this this summer, I think was their first season. They do everything at one venue. They did some random of venue in Illinois, right? But, you know, and MLC did this, too, where everything was originally in just Grand Prairie, Texas, and I think out in North Carolina and then a little bit in Florida, right? So now they've started doing a little bit more. It is more of a traveling circus as opposed to, like, we all play in one place.
Speaker: I think that kind of makes sense financially ah for an upstart league. But yes, eventually, as it grows, it'll be really nice. Especially with some expansion coming up. to see you know proper Home and Away, Homestand, series, stuff like that. You probably want a longer season two for that. so It's one of those things I think they could level up to. And that would be very exciting. for sure if they can do that.
Speaker: Yeah, completely agreed. Completely agreed. I think the future of the MLC, especially next year as it clears up a little bit on the schedule might, you know. there's There's potentially a ton of excitement there. And you know what you know what I think gets people the most excited though, Neil? personally. Yeah.
Speaker: I think it's it's national in cricket, at least, it's national teams. yes And ah let's let's talk a little bit about what the Team USA has been up to because they've actually got a very exciting October coming up.
Speaker: Yeah, so so Team USA, and again, a lot of those Team USA folks were out on the MLC pitches. ah So they haven't really done anything since June, but they have a couple of cool fixtures coming up. One of them actually is tomorrow. so ah So it's USA versus the UAE on the 5th, which is Monday, tomorrow at the time of recording.
Speaker: going up against namibia a couple of days later that then back to the uae and then back versus uh namibia I had my notes here that the US was going up against NAMM. uh did not work that well in the 70s did it Maybe it'll be better this time.
Speaker: ah But yeah, so... Are these just like, what do you think? Are these are like friendlies? What are these part of? throughof Yeah, I mean, so this is all part of the Cricket World Cup League 2, which is a massive mouthful. And oh my God, Neil, I... I have a massive bone to pick. What's going on? with What is it? I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Okay. We're going to take, we're going to digress here and i'm um I'm going to take us off track.
Speaker: The - Let me start by asking you a question. Do you think the ODI World Cup? happening in 2027, right? Zimbabwe, South Africa, those. Do you think that's the World Cup?
Speaker: You know, I feel like when i was a kid right it's like 2011 and that was a very famous time right but like Then it was like, that's the World Cup. like That's the big moment everyone everyone builds up for. And maybe this is my perspective, but like when 2024 came around, that was like. The World Cup, right? that's The T20 World Cup. at least from an american bias point of view right and in my mind i kind of like Did not really pay much attention to the... odi world cup coming around so it definitely feels like you know especially as
Speaker: you know you see any new league that's showing up right a lot of new players showing up like like T20 is probably like 60 % of what people are consuming. I would say test is probably 30, 35 and ODI is like a vanishing portion, right?
Speaker: um Yeah, honestly, it feels like sometime in that last decade. It's flipped. uh and t20 even though it's not called the world cup it's the t20 world cup the qualifier is needed It definitely feels like um that's the one that people are paying attention to.
Speaker: Right. And, you know, you'll take national pride in both cases. And, you know, we had a lot of fun watching the India women win their ODI World Cup. So that was great. Right. And I think there's always been national pride upon winning that. But as like, you know, say you're a neutral observer.
Speaker: Which one are you gonna care more about? I would say T20 at this point, more or less. What do you think? ah You know, that's so funny. And I think this is becoming a... almost a generational Yeah. Change. Right. Like I grew up.
Speaker: I grew up in the early 2000s, late 2010s. at you know following the world cup not the 220 world cup or any of that like for me it was you know 2000 uh you know 2011 2015 like yeah you know as growing up as an india fan watching that heartbreak or you know the 2023 november 19 2023 i remember that date
Speaker: you know and And I remember watching it. I remember i remember feeling what I felt and you know just having a... Terrible couple of days. we won India won the T20 World Cup twice since that time. And the second time... I was like, yeah, I guess. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. The best T20 team in the world. That's what it is. You know, yeah they won the champions league in that time. Yeah. Okay, cool. like Yeah. But now the 2027 world cup is coming up and, and.
Speaker: for me that's all i can think about but i know that that's going to change uh over time there is a way to save it. There is a way to make sure that the ODI format, which I believe is a beautiful format, yeah even though even though I think T20 actually is a better sports format, I think ODI is a better is an incredibly beautiful format.
Speaker: There's a way to save it. And for some reason, the ICC and the gentlemen in cricket have decided that they're not going to do that. And the way to save it is that you have a World Cup. that everyone cares about absolutely and that you know that associate nations can also get behind and grow the sport but if you have a world cup that's 14 teams that's impossible to get into then you know what are we doing here yeah i don't know i don't understand i mean
Speaker: you know, half the fun of the FIFA World Cup. Right. Was seeing, you know, Cabo Verde coming out of nowhere. Right. and Like shocking everybody, you know, and and I think they had what? 50 60 teams i think at some point they're probably just gonna go to 64 right
Speaker: And, like, that was great. You know, you you didn't just have Argentina playing Brazil over and over again, right? You had these long -tail teams. And, you know, these people could kind of – who was that guy? Was it Cabo Verde? The goalkeeper became an international sensation. You know, like, that's fun. People love seeing that. they love so I love seeing kind of Morocco go off and and and do great things, you know? ah Belgium. I guess they would they would play. But, like, it's fun seeing these random teams go out and play. And, yeah, 14 teams, right? so Just so everyone knows, right? 14 teams going to play in the ODI World Cup. So 10 have auto qualified.
Speaker: Uh, either by being hosts and this is in south africa namibia and zimbabwe um so you know tandem qualified either by virtue of being host or just being the top teams So basically you end up getting all the test plane nations minus Ireland and ah the West Indies.
Speaker: Then you have four more spots up for grabs to round out the 14. You have to imagine Ireland, the West Indies will get it. Kind of a slap in the face of the West Indies, right? For like not auto qualify. Yeah. They didn't qualify last year either. They didn't qualify last year either. or last stick man Yeah. There's like two slots left for everybody else.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: So what's going on? What do you think? What's the whole qualification thing? This whole thing seems like a mess. What do you think is going on there? yeah i just I hate it. um so Okay, so here's this is so dumb. Here's how it works. There's the Cricket World Cup League 2, which you also have to qualify for, by the way. But that's that's eight teams. The current table is Scotland, USA, Netherlands, Oman, Namibia, Canada, Nepal. and the the UAE, yes they all play. And, you know, the top two then get into, or maybe it's the top four get into the cricket world cup.
Speaker: World Cup qualifiers. That's what it's called. um um Absurd, absurd, which then has its own round robin. And then the top two teams that the folks that make the final will actually, you know, be a part of the World Cup.
Speaker: and And look, I don't have any problem with qualifying leagues. I have a problem with the unnecessary exclusivity. But yes regardless... um
Speaker: ah Last season, or you know last edition, the USA was fifth in the Cricket World Cup League 2, which then qualified them for the Cricket World Cup World Cup Qualifier Playoff. Say that 10 times fast. yeah um Which they actually handily won, beating you know powerhouse teams like Papua New Guinea and Jersey. That's that's not to roast. you know Papua New Guinea was in the World Cup. They're in the T20 World Cup. they they're They're good. they're're They're interesting teams. They're interesting teams. But then they qualified for the cricket world cup, world cup qualifiers, which they were, they, you know, they ended up lasting.
Speaker: But the fundamental problem here is... I want to see these, yeah and I want to see these teams get the limelight. Like, look, I get... that it's a good way to have a reason for ICC -funded bilateral cricket.
Speaker: I understand that. And I understand that that's like a, you know, the the amount of funding for these guys to play international properly, you know, broadcasted and set up matches is limited. Yep.
Speaker: Boom. But what are we doing here? There are ways to solve this. yeah you know i got a couple of thoughts on this right one is I think the kind of The current format we have of like, you know. test ODI, like you know, that you go to the you do the the bilateral, trilateral series. India goes to New Zealand, whatever, and you play test ODI.
Speaker: Uh, you know, T20s. That's fun. I don't know if that there would be like support for that unless you made it kind of. you know you have to win this in order to make it into some kind of World Cup.
Speaker: the On the other hand, like... who cares right like i'm not gonna be like oh well okay so if usa beats uae here then we have a chance to have a chance to have a chance to get in and get our asses kicked or whatever right Uh,
Speaker: It's one of those things like... They should just let them play. Right. And. yeah this whole convoluted thing i get it but at that point just just open the open the gate you know like i want to see maybe i'm just a sicko right but I want to see Isle of Man play Japan.
Speaker: you know in cricket i want to see png play uganda And some of the most fun I had. uh watching the t20 world cups was seeing like the ugandas the nepal nepal great really fun underdog story right and png didn't do too well but it was kind of cool right, to see them come out there.
Speaker: I would love to come see these teams have a chance to play. Now, I think my counter argument to that. would be I don't know if the those teams... ah depth. is great enough to like play a 50 over format.
Speaker: right like you need certain kind of caliber of players right and maybe at that point you do t20 and then from there they can have a chance to kind of build the depth and the infrastructure to to do 50 over formats.
Speaker: On the other hand, I'm also just like. Let him play, man. Why not? Let him play. I... a couple of a couple of additional thoughts yeah we've been calling it a 14 Team World Cup, the actual.
Speaker: The actual World Cup itself is actually only 12 teams. Only 12? the uh folks that qualify in have to then qualify again to be a part of the real world cup like um It's it'ss absurd. It's absurd, right? And I completely i completely agree with you. i Your comment about the quality of players is really thoughtful. I think that makes ah the the caliber matters.
Speaker: But they are playing ODIs. yeah It's not like they aren't. yeah um And you know there are there are countries that you know don't have a big enough team or don't have enough depth or don't have enough professionalism for whatever reason to to get there.
Speaker: And I even understand that you know a country like Portugal or Spain is going to benefit a ton from the European T20 League. And then you know that might allow them to develop the caliber. But we're talking about countries here that have ODI teams.
Speaker: yeah We're not talking about the Spains and Portugal's. And so, you know, it's just a it's just a shocking system. yeah it It feels like a slap in the face when everything is like 12. There's 12 teams that do everything, right? I mean, thank God it's not 10 or 8, right? But it's like, okay.
Speaker: we all know who's gonna make it if you're gonna do 12 right like it's everything just 12 12 12 12 12 right uh You know, I think an interesting corollary to draw, especially for kind of an American ah perspective, right, is you look at the World Baseball Classic. Right. So that was.
Speaker: Kind of similar to this. It's like kind of like a World Cup of... baseball teams ah from, you know, I think around the world who played back in March and April. And I think that was an interesting kind of. comparison because there's not that many teams that are good at baseball, right? USA, Canada, Venezuela, Dominican Republic.
Speaker: Japan, Korea, a couple other ah smaller teams, right? There's not that many. But they still had a lot of teams in, like England got to play, right? Italy got to play. Uh, I think Brazil, Taiwan got to play, right? So you had a lot of these longer tail, less famous teams. You know, of course, it ends up being USA, Japan, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, and all those guys, the usual suspects in the top.
Speaker: But it's so much fun, right, to go see these little guys. And that's how you develop the sport. ah in these countries. Um, So take that as an example. You know, cricket is also extremely top heavy, maybe less so than baseball. But like if baseball can do it.
Speaker: I think cricket can too. It. and And there's good examples of this too. Just yesterday, and I'll give you another sports analogy. um Just yesterday, india's India's soccer team played Brazil. India's soccer team is ranked 138th.
Speaker: in the world. in FIFA and Brazil is Brazil. Yeah. More people watch that. single match than any match across India's top tier soccer league. No way. In the past like couple of years. Yeah. That's how you get people to buy in. yeah like Folks like me want to watch England play.
Speaker: i you know played Papua New Guinea. I want to see that. i When the USA beat Pakistan in that T20 World Cup. Yeah. Massive, massive, right? This is how you build an audience. This is how you build excitement. This is what got me excited about the USA team and made someone like a Sorab Neteroelker like a household name.
Speaker: Yeah. yeah you know this is how you develop the sport in these smaller areas you look at like jersey guernsey i have some strange fascination with watching these like random small teams yeah They only play other. you know.
Speaker: Less known teams, right? Yep If you got one of them to go and play an exhibition match, I don't care if it's India's third stringers, right? But just imagine how insane that would be. Right? um I would love to see that. I don't know. And this is your thing to your your point about what will take over, right? I think whatever format has more teams is probably going to become the most popular one, is my guess. And I i wish they would expand.
Speaker: T20 to like 32. Easy, right I think that's the one that I think would have most excitement. um because you You're not seeing the same thing over and over and over again, right? This is something new, something fresh, and you'll get new people into this into the sport. What do you think?
Speaker: Yeah, I mean... I completely agree with that. And I think maybe the reality is that broadcasters and the ICC have decided that after Virat retires, that they're going to retire. ODI with it.
Speaker: maybe they've already meant that made that decision and they don't care i I mean, I would understand that, I guess. ah But that would be I think that would be a very sad day in the sport. I think that would just be a really sad day in the sport. Yeah. It sounds like you you are a defender of ODI. You know, it does, you know, it rewards kind of having a well -rounded, well -balanced. uh kind of team right and To my point about depth, right? Like I think a lot of these teams like asking Japan to go play in test match. I think that would be. maybe a bridge too far.
Speaker: odi is how you start pushing these teams right because they're only ever going to play t20 they get pigeonholed right like you want them to start building up towards becoming a test team. like some my you know. fondest kind of memories of the sport. uh or kind of fondest news things are saying oh my god like afghanistan and ireland can now play test for you like that was awesome i would love to see that roster get expanded And you got to build people up, right? Like you want to get.
Speaker: I would say maybe other teams I want to see you know get Nepal in there, get USA in there, get Canada in there. Right. And you've got to start pushing them. If they don't get to play in the ODI World Cup, what chance do they ever have of becoming a test -playing nation someday?
Speaker: Nepal is a rabid cricket fan you know country. They're such a fun team. Yeah, and they love the sport. And you know they obviously need things to cheer about up there, right? Yeah, yeah. Tough couple of months. but Yeah, seriously. but ah But that's the thing. I think, you know. The test cricket also being unnecessary limited is ah a whole other thing. yeah yeah That's a whole other thing. I think cricket is a...
Speaker: you know Just the the history of it, the way it began. started so much as an exclusive boys club that we're still unraveling a lot of those you know those decisions.
Speaker: Totally. Yeah. All right, what's... Head back stateside and we can wrap up. There's some interesting news here north of the border. I didn't know about this until recently, but Canada actually has a...
Speaker: T10, or a Super 60 they call it. I thought I was excited. I said, it's her super 60. I was like, Oh my God, 60 overs, like bring back 1983. You know what I'm saying? look No, it's actually 60 balls. ah But Canada, interestingly. has a 1010 like a 10 over format. That tournament is going on. ah The women's tournament just wrapped up and the men's tournament actually today as of filming.
Speaker: ah has the semifinals and the finals. uh which is super neat um i i didn't even know about it until recently but It's really cool to hear about it. So you got 10 over format. You got six teams, very similar to MLC down here.
Speaker: ah You got three from Ontario, from around Toronto. You got two from Vancouver. ah One from Montreal. So maybe a little. kind of clustered. ah But yeah, I mean, semifinals, finals happening today in Vancouver. And Dhruv, you probably noticed, you probably recognize some of the the names on these teams, right?
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, first of all, I only just made the connection for 60 Balls. So thank you for illuminating that to me. I was just I was sitting here like, what does this mean? Yeah, um yeah no, I mean. On the... ah
Speaker: On the ah women's side, I feel like there was some really interesting, like Marizanne Capp was MVP of ah ah of. the entire tournament. What? What a couple of seasons she is having. What an incredible, incredible player. Another kind of interesting news, it's speaking of like expanding out to the to the rest of the world, Laura Cardozo.
Speaker: First Brazilian to win any cricket franchise league. Both men's or women's. Wow. That's so cool. That's awesome. i love You love to see that, right? And this is the thing, but you have these players.
Speaker: ah go out and, you know, you play with the best talent in the world. Imagine her being teammates with Marizane Kapp, right? You can go back to your own country and that's how that's how these teams improve is by getting that exposure to other top players around the world.
Speaker: And I actually think women's cricket is a really good opportunity to do that because it's not quite as entrenched. right i think everyone's starting from kind of ah a more equal baseline because a lot of countries haven't for many reasons invested in their women's team as much right that's the opportunity uh And I think I think that's it's kind of you're seeing it ah by, you know, it's the ladies side that had the first Brazilian winner. Right.
Speaker: Yeah. Going on that side, so... you know There are a lot of Canadians um playing in the women's league. I think in the men's league, you got a lot more of the um international players yeah um for whatever reason. So there are a lot of guys from MLC. ah Nicholas Porin, Moeen Ali. He wasn't MLC, but you know. Yeah. Very well -known player. I was surprised to see him out there. yeah Andre Russell, Kyron Pollard, Andres House, Sikandar Raza, Colin Munro. Really cool players. Yeah. um
Speaker: heartless villione and david uiza um i had fun watching david visa he was the the old man who um Captain Namibia pretty far in 24. um Alex Lees from England, ah one of the top scorers. So a lot of pretty well -known players, a good number of local players.
Speaker: But it does seem like a lot of the MLC players on the men's side kind of went up and started playing in Canada this fall.
Speaker: Yeah, it's fun to see americans Americans up there as well and getting some good game time. T10 as a format for me personally is a little bit too fast, but ah yeah, it' I mean, it's okay. But game time is game time, right? So it it is fun to see. I mean, we were just talking about OBP &R earlier, right? it's yeah It's fun to see folks like that. and And I think one of the big values of... setting up any of these franchise leagues for american players is that you get and and the mlc is like this too you get
Speaker: more and more induction into some of the international international greats and and the way that they play right like imagine learning from nikki p or as you said moy ali or how you know.
Speaker: how to how to hold your own and how to be successful. Right. So it's, it's, it's very cool to see that ah around the country. Canada does have a, you know, a whole series of cricket leagues, right? They have the GLT 20 and I think they're that one's more famous. Yeah. Yeah. They're, they're thinking about starting another Canadian league. i I'm not entirely sure whether some of these nations have the capacity for
Speaker: multiple franchise leagues, especially if they're talking about bringing in an MLC team from Toronto or something like that. I feel like that makes more sense. What do you think? Yeah, you know, speaking of the Toronto team, I i would love to see some kind of like ah i'm actually a World Series kind of thing, right? Where the top American team and the top Canadian team play ah face off.
Speaker: I don't think you can do it because the same players are kind of going to be on both. right but One guy goes out bats to the other side, goes turns around, goes out in the field or whatever, right? But that would be kind of cool. yeah It would be nice to kind of... Let me introduce you to the concept of the Champions League, which did exist a few years ago, as you as you might remember. yeah um And so it was a ton of IPL teams and some big bash teams. um But as you said, now that...
Speaker: franchise owners kind of own multiple teams and they share players around them, ah it's it instantly became very logistically complicated. And you know I actually don't know how you resolve that problem other than you have maybe a...
Speaker: Mumbai Indians around the world. Hmm. And the owners own these franchises in the in the Champions League and yeah they pull players in. But I would love to see that. I would love to see that. Even just something like a pan, like just and maybe MLC and GLT 20 can like do something right where they maybe they have an exhibition series or just have.
Speaker: six teams south of the border and like four teams north of but whatever you want to do right Just have them play. Just had do something like that. And then... I think my dream would be have a proper like domestic series like the Sheffield Shield, right? Or anything like that, right? So you can imagine. usa canada people players from the northeast from california right they could they could play each other and then the ontarians could come in and play that would be that would be awesome that's the real way to develop young talent but we'll get there We'll get there when we get there, right? Right now, it's really fun to see the the different franchise leagues.
Speaker: ah taking off. And you know, I think as much as we rag on T10, it's a... gives you a variety of formats right like that's that's always a good thing i would love to see them go out and do like 50 over right at some point as long as they're not doing the hundreds that's fine Right, that's fine by me. But you know, a variety formats.
Speaker: Probably a good thing. all things up Yeah, that's fair. ah Look, T5 is where I draw the line. The F5, wouldn't it? The F5. Yeah, F5? Yeah, I don't know. that's Wait, I have an idea. I have an idea. How about this? We'll play, instead of two innings, we'll have each team can go nine times, and you only get three wickets each time.
Speaker: okay And then you can just throw Yorkers all the time. That's a sport that's a sport's going to take off in America. That is going to mark my words. It's going to take it's going to take off. Amazing. yeah um Well, Neil, this is ah this is a ton of fun conversation. ah any Any closing thoughts as we as we wrap up here?
Speaker: No, man, i'm I'm excited to see baseball ah one last time before we have a whole year off. Probably. And well, after that, I'll be looking forward to. MLC 27. yeah that's right that's right Okay. Well, that's it from Neil and myself over here on The American Over. Thank you for listening. And that's us signing off.
Speaker: Over and out.
