Ashwin, who retired from international cricket in December 2024 and then from the IPL at the end of the 2025 season after a lukewarm return to Chennai Super Kings, recently played an exhibition match in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
This will be the first time Ashwin will be playing in a T20 league outside the IPL. USA has been making moves towards becoming a major destination for cricket in the lead up to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games, where cricket will make a comeback after 128 years.
“The fact that there is so much interest from the kids and from a lot of people who have come and settled in America and showing so much interest towards the game, I just wanted to come and experience what it is going to look like when we turn up for the MLC”
R Ashwin
“This will be the first time he’s played in a major global franchise competition outside of India,” Johnny Grave, the MLC chief executive, told ESPN. “And for us to be the first league to attract a player of this calibre is a testament to how the league’s developed over the last three years since it was launched back in 2023.”
“The fact that there is so much interest from the kids and from a lot of people who have come and settled in America and showing so much interest towards the game, I just wanted to come and experience what it is going to look like when we turn up for the MLC,” Ashwin said.
“All of this news flowed for the last few years has just meant that cricket is now more known to Americans,” Grave said. “And certainly when we go around talking to business partners, leaders, countries, cities, people have at least heard of cricket now. It’s certainly not an unknown sport here.”
Ashwin felt his participation in MLC was coming at a very important time for the sport.
“We are standing at one of the crux points for the game where it is fighting and fighting to break free in terms of globalising the particular sport,” he said. “So I think there will be a lot of freewill over the next decade in terms of how much people will want to engage and how many people will want to jump on-board.”
Unicorns have never won the MLC title. Their best finish was the loss to Washington Freedom in the 2024 final.
