Chicago Tigers (cricket)

Chicago Tigers

League	Minor League Cricket
Conference	Central Division (Pacific Conference)
Personnel
Captain	Calvin Savage
Owner	Raiders Unlimited
Chief executive	Vishal Shah
Team information
City	Chicago, Illinois
Colours	Orange, and   Black.
Founded	2022; 3 years ago (2022)
Home ground	Hanover Park
Capacity	2,000
History
Notable players	Calvin Savage Marques Ackerman Saad Ali Sami Sohail
Official website	chicagotigerscricket.com
T20 kit

The Chicago Tigers are an American professional Twenty20 cricket team based in the Chicago metropolitan area that competes in Minor League Cricket (MiLC). It was formed in 2022 as part of 3 new teams to play in the 2022 Minor League Cricket season.[1] The franchise is owned by Raiders Unlimited.[2]

The team's home ground is Hanover Park, located near Chicago.[3] Ex-South African cricketers Calvin Savage and Marques Ackerman helm captaincy and vice-captaincy duties respectively.[4][5]

Saad Ali and Sami Sohail currently top the bowling and batting leaderboards with 405 runs and 22 wickets respectively.[6][7]

Franchise history

Background

Talks of an American Twenty20 league formed in November 2018, before USA Cricket became the new governing body of cricket in the United States.[8][9] In May 2021, USA Cricket announced that they had accepted a bid by American Cricket Enterprises (ACE) for a US$1 billion investment covering the league and other investments benefiting the U.S. national teams.[10]

In an Annual General Meeting on February 21, 2020, it was announced that USA Cricket was planning to launch Major League Cricket in 2021 and Minor League Cricket that summer,[11] but it was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic[12] and due to the lack of high-quality cricket stadiums in the USA.[13] Major League Cricket was pushed to a summer-2023 launch[14] and Minor League Cricket was pushed back to July 31, 2021.[15]

In 2020, MLC launched the Chicago Catchers, the predecessor cricket team to the Chicago Tigers. The Catchers performed poorly during the inaugural season of Minor League Cricket, which thus forced MLC to terminate the Catchers after the season ended amid internal issues within the franchise.[16][17]

Following the termination of the Catchers, MLC announced the formation of the Tigers in May 2022, ahead of the 2022 Minor League Cricket season draft.[17] It was later announced that the Tigers was owned by Raiders Unlimited, which was owned by sports enthusiast and business entrepreneur Vishal Shah.[2]

2022 season

See also: 2022 Minor League Cricket season § Pacific Conference

Ahead of the 2022 season, Major League Cricket announced that the draft for that season would take place on May 12.[18] Ahead of the official season, it was announced that Calvin Savage and Marques Ackerman would helm captaincy and vice-captaincy duties throughout the season.[4][5]

Throughout the season, the Tigers lost to the Strikers and Lashings once,[19] won once and lost once against the Athletics, Mustangs, and Americans,[20] won once against the Surf Riders, and won twice against the Blasters.[20] The Tigers finished second in their group, and advanced to the quarter-finals, wherein they lost to the Strikers 2-1 in a best-of-three series.[21]

Current squad

• Players with international caps are listed in bold.
•  *  denotes a player who is currently unavailable for selection.
•  *  denotes a player who is unavailable for rest of the season

Name	Nat.	Birth date	Batting style	Bowling style	Signed year	Notes
Batsmen
Charan Sai Teja		(1996-05-25) 25 May 1996 (age 28)	Left-handed	Right-arm medium	2022
Karan Kumar		(1992-09-08) 8 September 1992 (age 32)	Right-handed	Right-arm medium	2022	Overseas
Rishi Mehta		(1993-11-13) 13 November 1993 (age 31)	Right-handed	Right-arm medium fast	2022
All-rounders
Calvin Savage		(1993-01-04) 4 January 1993 (age 32)	Right-handed	Right-arm fast	2022	Overseas captain
Deepchand Pinnaka		(1990-07-17) 17 July 1990 (age 34)	Right-handed	Right-arm medium	2022
Kushal Ganji		(1996-12-31) 31 December 1996 (age 28)	Right-handed	Right-arm fast	2022
Manan Patel		(1987-05-16) 16 May 1987 (age 37)	Right-handed	Right-arm off break	2022
Marques Ackerman		(1996-03-01) 1 March 1996 (age 28)	Left-handed	Right-arm off break	2022	Overseas vice-captain
Mittansh Nithiyanandam		(2006-04-26) 26 April 2006 (age 18)	Left-handed	Left-arm medium	2022
Ocarie Sims		(1995-02-11) 11 February 1995 (age 29)	Right-handed	Right-arm leg break googly	2022
Prateer Mehta		(1996-06-25) 25 June 1996 (age 28)	Right-handed	Right-arm medium fast	2022
Ranadeep Aleti		(1993-07-12) 12 July 1993 (age 31)	Right-handed	Right-arm fast	2022
Rohit Thete		(1990-04-10) 10 April 1990 (age 34)	Right-handed	Right-arm off break	2022
Sami Sohail		(2002-01-29) 29 January 2002 (age 22)	Right-handed	Right-arm medium	2022
Saad Ali		(1993-10-05) 5 October 1993 (age 31)	Left-handed	Right-arm medium	2022
Tejas Visal		(2003-03-03) 3 March 2003 (age 21)	Right-handed	Right-arm leg break googly	2022
Wicket-keepers
Sunny Bhatti		(1991-12-30) 30 December 1991 (age 33)	Right-handed	Right-arm medium fast	2022

Statistics

Most runs

Nat.	Player	Span	Matches	Innings	Runs	Average	HS	100	50
	Saad Ali	2022–present	13	13	405	33.75	69	0	1
	Marques Ackerman	2022–present	16	16	316	21.07	73	0	1
	Karan Kumar	2022–present	13	13	297	27.00	71	0	2
	Calvin Savage	2022–present	13	13	272	30.22	49	0	0
	Charan Sai Teja	2022–present	12	12	209	17.42	54	0	1

Source: CricClubs, Last updated: 9 January 2023

Most wickets

Nat.	Player	Span	Matches	Wickets	Avg	BBI	Econ	SR	4w	5w
	Sami Sohail	2022–present	16	22	19.68	6/33	8.20	14.4	1	1
	Calvin Savage	2022–present	13	17	15.12	4/9	5.24	17.3	1	0
	Ranadeep Aleti	2022–present	16	15	25.13	3/30	6.73	22.4	0	0
	Pruthvish Patel	2022–present	16	14	24.79	4/31	8.26	18.0	1	0
	Deepchand Pinnaka	2022–present	7	7	18.57	3/14	7.65	14.6	0	0

Source: CricClubs, Last updated: 9 January 2023

See also

• Major League Cricket
• Minor League Cricket
• 2021 Minor League Cricket season
• 2021 Minor League Cricket season final
• Minor League Cricket teams

References

1. Dutt, Ela (May 9, 2022). "2022 Minor League Cricket Championship Announced". News India Times. The Times of India. Retrieved August 10, 2022.
2. "Chicago Tigers Announce Expanded Ownership Group". Minor League Cricket. Major League Cricket. August 5, 2022. Retrieved August 10, 2022.
3. Dunmore, Tom (June 24, 2022). "Grounds Guide: Attending Minor League Matches". Major League Cricket. Retrieved August 10, 2022.
4. "Former Dolphins, Cobras All-Rounder Calvin Savage Joins Chicago Tigers". ClubCricketSA. May 21, 2022. Retrieved August 10, 2022.
5. "Marques Ackerman Joins Calvin Savage At Chicago Tigers In USA". ClubCricketSA. June 26, 2022. Retrieved August 10, 2022.
6. "Chicago Tigers - Batting (2022)". CricClubs. Retrieved August 10, 2022.
7. "Chicago Tigers - Bowling (2022)". CricClubs. Retrieved August 10, 2022.
8. Penna, Peter Della (January 8, 2019). "USA formally approved to rejoin ICC as Associate Member under USA Cricket". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved August 10, 2022.
9. Penna, Peter Della (November 27, 2018). "USA plan to launch their T20 League in 2021". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved August 10, 2022.
10. "USA Cricket Chooses Partner to Fund and Develop U.S.-Based Professional T20 Cricket League". USA Cricket. May 23, 2019. Retrieved August 10, 2022.
11. "USA Cricket Board Meeting February 2020". USA Cricket. February 27, 2020. Retrieved August 10, 2022.
12. "USA Cricket re-evaluating Major League Cricket debut timing due to Covid-19 concerns". SportBusiness. August 2, 2021. Retrieved August 10, 2022.
13. "American Major League Cricket tournament launch pushed to 2023 at Annual General Meeting". Inside the Games. May 24, 2021. Retrieved August 10, 2022.
14. Penna, Peter Della (May 21, 2021). "USA's MLC T20 tournament pushed back to 2023 at AGM". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved August 10, 2022.
15. Penna, Peter Della (July 30, 2021). "Minor League Cricket: T20 league in USA kicks off with Sami Aslam, Corey Anderson in the mix". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved August 10, 2022.
16. Brache, Laura (June 24, 2022). "Cricket season is here, and NC's only professional team has changed. What to know". The News & Observer. Retrieved August 10, 2022.
17. Shah, Premkumar (May 10, 2022). "Title and presenting partners announced for 2022 Minor League Cricket Championship". News India Times. The Times of India. Retrieved August 10, 2022.
18. "Title and Presenting Partners Announced for 2022 Minor League Cricket Championship". Minor League Cricket. Major League Cricket. May 5, 2022. Retrieved August 10, 2022.
19. "Minor League Cricket Week 2: Shehan Jayasuriya Dazzles With Twin Hundreds". Nation World News. July 6, 2022. Retrieved January 9, 2023.
20. Patel, Smit (July 12, 2022). "Minor League Cricket Week 3 Wrap: Silicon Valley Striker juggernaut rolls on". Cricbuzz. Retrieved January 9, 2023.
21. Nielson, Tom (August 24, 2022). "MiLC Pacific Conference Final Preview". Major League Cricket. Retrieved January 9, 2023.