Cricket

Unicorns ahead: Australian captain signs on for American T20 campaign

He has previously played minimal T20 franchise cricket.

Published by
Scott Pryde

Australian cricket captain Pat Cummins has reportedly signed on with the San Franciso Unicorns ahead of the 2024 Major League Cricket season.

The United States-based competition, which will get underway just a week after the end of the ongoing T20 World Cup - which is being held in the United States of America and West Indies - will be the second installment of MLC.

The first installment, held in 2023, was viewed as a major success with players from all around the world setting up camp in the USA for the three-week, 25-game tournament played between six franchises.

Despite the fact Cricket New South Wales are linked up in a strategic partnership with the Washington Freedom, CricBuzz are reporting Cummins will play for the Unicorns throughout the tournament.

Cummins has previously shown little in the way of interest to play domestic franchise T20 cricket, instead focusing all his energy on playing across all three formats for Australia.

Now captain of the Test and ODI team, Cummins took part in this year's IPL campaign for the Sunrisers Hyderabad, and went from India directly to the Carribean, removing any semblance of an off-season for Cummins while the Australian team were on hiatus from playing.

After the T20 World Cup, Australia are due to play short form cricket in both Ireland and England during August and September, which could well be used as a chance to rest players, before the home summer kicks off in November with three ODIs and three T20Is against Pakistan.

The main part of the home summer however will be the five-Test series against India for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, before Australia clash with Sri Lanka in two Tests away, then play the ICC Champions Trophy in Pakistan all before March is finished.

Published by
Scott Pryde