The much anticipated star-studded second edition of the Major League Cricket, based out of the United States of America, will begin on July 4 — here’s the list of all the players retained by all the franchises ahead of MLC 2024.

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The second season of MLC will start on July 4, Independence Day in the USA and five days after the conclusion of the 2024 T20I World Cup Final in Barbados. The cramped schedule means international players like Rashid Khan, Trent Boult, Heinrich Klaasenand Haris Rauf, among other marquee stars, will remain in North America after the World Cup to participate in the USA’s top-flight T20 tournament.

Six franchises – MI New York, Seattle Orcas, Texas Super Kings, San Francisco Unicorns, Washington Freedom and Los Angeles Knight Riders – have retained a total of 23 overseas players from the previous edition.

Defending champions New York have held back as many as seven cricketers, the most by any side. Nicholas Pooran, who struck an unbeaten 137 off 55 balls in the 2023 final is among them, alongside Kieron Pollard, Rashid Khan, Dewald Brevis, Tim David and Kagiso Rabada.

The domestic retentions for each franchise will be announced in March. The teams will now look forward to filling their remaining quota of overseas players, which has been capped at nine players in each squad and up to six in a single playing XI.

MLC 2024: Players retained and released by each team

MI New York: Nicholas Pooran, Kieron Pollard, Dewald Brevis, Kagiso Rabada, Tim David, Rashid Khan, Trent Boult

Seattle Orcas: Quinton De Kock, Heinrich Klassen, Wayne Parnell, Imad Wasim

Texas Super Kings: Faf Du Plessis, Devon Conway, Mitchell Santner

San Francisco Unicorns: Finn Allen, Haris Rauf

Washington Freedom: Akeal Hosein, Marco Jansen

Los Angeles Knight Riders: Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Adam Zampa, Spencer Johnson, Jason Roy

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MLC 2024Series Editorial