The Silicon Valley Strikers are an American professional

Twenty20 cricket Twenty20 (abbreviated T20) is a shortened format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the county cricket, inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two t ...

team based in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

that competes in

Minor League Cricket Minor League Cricket (MiLC) is a professional Twenty20, Twenty20 cricket league in the United States that serves as the Minor league, developmental league for Major League Cricket (MLC). The league comprises 26 teams, divided between the Atlanti ...

(MiLC). It was formed in 2020 as part of 24 original teams to compete in Minor League Cricket. The franchise is owned by Stanford Strikers LLC. The team's home ground is Morgan Hills Outdoor Sports Complex, located in

Morgan Hill, California Morgan Hill is a city in Santa Clara County, California, at the southern tip of Silicon Valley in the San Francisco Bay Area. Morgan Hill is an affluent residential community, the seat of several high-tech companies, and a dining and recreation ...

. Pranay Suri was named as captain for the 2023 Minor league season, replacing Unmukt Chand. The current leading run-scorer is Unmukt Chand, with the highest wicket-taker being Pranay Suri.

Franchise history

Background

Talks of an American

Twenty20 Twenty20 (abbreviated T20) is a shortened format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the county cricket, inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two t ...

league started in November 2018 just before

USA Cricket USA Cricket (USAC) is the governing body of cricket in the United States. USA Cricket operates all of the United States national representative cricket sides, including the men's and women's national teams and youth teams, as well as Majo ...

became the new governing body of cricket in the United States. In May 2021, USA Cricket announced they had accepted a bid by American Cricket Enterprises (ACE) for a

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

1 billion investment covering the league and other investments benefitting the U.S. national teams. In an Annual General Meeting on February 21, 2020, it was announced that USA Cricket was planning to launch

Major League Cricket Major League Cricket (MLC) is a professional Twenty20 (T20) cricket league in the United States organized by American Cricket Enterprises (ACE) and sanctioned by USA Cricket. Founded in 2023, the league operates as a single entity consisting of ...

in 2021 and

that summer, but it was delayed due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

and due to the lack of high-quality cricket stadiums in the USA. Major League Cricket was pushed to a summer-2023 launch and Minor League Cricket was pushed back to July 31, 2021. USA Cricket CEO Iain Higgins also pointed out cities such as

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

and

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with a large cricket fanbase, and targeted them among others as launch cities for Minor League Cricket.

Exhibition league

In July 2020, the player registration for the Minor League Cricket exhibition league began. On August 15, 2020,

announced the teams participating in the exhibition league matches, also listing the owners for each team. The draft for the exhibition league began on August 22, 2020, with the Silicon Valley Strikers releasing their squad on August 24. Shadley van Schalkwyk was later named as captain for the Silicon Valley Strikers in the exhibition league.

2021 season

After the conclusion of the exhibition league,

announced that they were planning to launch the inaugural season of

in spring 2021. Ahead of the official season, which was announced to kick off on July 31, they announced

Unmukt Chand Unmukt Chand (born 26 March 1993) is a former Indian cricketer. He is a right-handed top order batsman who currently plays for the Los Angeles Knight Riders in Major League Cricket, and the Melbourne Renegades in Australia's Big Bash League. He ...

as captain and Pranay Suri as vice-captain (although originally Suri was captain, due to Chand not being called in the squad until the third week). In their first match of the season, the Strikers defeated the Thunderbolts by 2

wicket In the sport of cricket, the term wicket has several meanings: * It is either of the two sets of three Stump (cricket), stumps and two Bail (cricket), bails at each end of the Cricket pitch, pitch. The Fielding (cricket), fielding team's playe ...

s. They then went on to win against the Master Blasters, the Surf Riders twice, the Blazers twice, the Lashings, the Grizzlies twice, and the Thunderbolts again. They additionally lost against the Lashings, the Master Blasters, and the Thunderbolts throughout the

group stage A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

. They placed ''2nd'' in their group, thus qualifying the Strikers for the quarter-finals. In the quarter-finals, the Strikers won against the Austin Athletics in a best-of-3 series 2-1, qualifying them for the semi-finals. During the semi-finals, the Strikers bowled out the Grizzlies for 135 to win by 33 runs and take them to the finals. In the finals, they won against the Stallions by 6

s to win their maiden MiLC title.

2022 season

Ahead of the 2022 season,

announced that the draft for that season would take place on May 12.

Current squad

* Players with international caps are listed in bold.

References

{{Morgan Hill, California Minor League Cricket teams Cricket teams in California Cricket clubs established in 2020 2020 establishments in California Morgan Hill, California Sports clubs and teams in Santa Clara County, California