The Los Angeles Knight Riders (LAKR) franchise made an announcement on Monday (July 10), revealing that Sunil Narine will be their captain for the inaugural edition of the Major League Cricket (MLC).
The franchise took to Twitter to share the news of the West Indies all-rounder’s appointment as skipper.
Sunil Narine steps onto the red carpet of captaincy for the Los Angeles Knight Riders! 💜💫#LAKR #WeAreLAKR #MLC23 #LosAngeles pic.twitter.com/w2yJqRUBJW
— Los Angeles Knight Riders (@LA_KnightRiders) July 10, 2023
Narine will be accompanied by the guidance of head coach Phil Simmons, who was recently named the coach of Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) – the most successful team in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) – and also won the title with Barbados Royals (then Tridents) in 2019. The former Trinidadian cricketer has also spent stints in charge of the West Indies teams twice (2015-16 and 2019-2022), Zimbabwe (2004–2005), Ireland (2007–2015) and Afghanistan (2017–2019).
Joining the Los Angeles side alongside Narine are international players such as Andre Russell, Lockie Ferguson, Jason Roy, Rilee Rossouw, Martin Guptill and Adam Zampa.
“I’ve always spoken about wanting to represent the Knight Riders wherever they play,” Narine said in a Knight Riders release.
“We’ve long talked about coming to the United States and I’m glad it’s finally happening. As captain of this side, I am looking forward to the challenge. There are a lot of experienced guys in this team who I can bounce information off, so it will be an exciting time for us. We hope for all Knight Riders fans in America to come out and support us, and all those around the world to keep cheering for us.”
Scheduled to take place from July 13 to 30 in Dallas, the MLC 2023 is a six-team T20 competition. Alongside the LAKR, other participating teams include the Texas Super Kings, MI New York, Washington Freedom, San Francisco Unicorns and Seattle Orcas.
The Knight Riders will kick-start MLC against Texas Super Kings at the Grand Prairie Stadium.
