The future of MLC is up in the air so is USA participation in 2028 Los Angeles Olympics
After making significant strides in world cricket by co-hosting the 2024 T20 World Cup with the West Indies and winning ICC Associate Member Men’s Team Performance of The Year, USA is in a situation where its participation in the next T20 World Cup is under serious threat.
USA Cricket, which is the cricket controlling body in the country, has terminated the multi-decade deal with American Cricket Enterprise Inc. (ACE).
ACE had struck a 50-year exclusive deal with USA Cricket to operate T20 cricket in 2019.
As a part of the deal, ACE was supposed to sponsor the national teams, build stadiums and establish a professional league.
This has resulted in the stadium in Lauderhill, Florida becoming a regular host of international T20 matches between countries other than the USA as well as the national teams.
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In the meanwhile, USA also co-hosted the early phases of the 2024 Men’s T20 World Cup matches in New York, Texas and Lauderhill. The competition also witnessed USA beat Pakistan in a thrilling Super Over and progress to the Super 8s.
The infrastructure inside the country for T20 cricket has also improved drastically with the inception of Major League Cricket (MLC) which has completed three seasons.
It has also attracted direct investment from a fellow national board like New Zealand Cricket (NZC) which invested in the MLC in a Toronto-based franchise without the written consent of the USA Cricket.
This is one among the many reasons for the fracture in the relationship between USA Cricket and ACE. With cricket set to make a comeback at the Olympics after nearly a century at the Los Angeles games in 2028, the ICC had put USA Cricket ‘under notice’ in March 2025 citing governance issues.
In June 2025, USA Cricket served ACE with breach notice and accused that it violated major contractual terms: delayed payments, missing infrastructure deadlines of building stadiums and facilities such as a High-Performance centre, governance interference, and international overreach.
The termination of the deal between both the parties has put the continuation of the MLC as well as USA’s participation in the 2026 T20 World Cup co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka.
USA’s participation at the LA 2028 Games is also under threat right now.
