New Jersey Stallions (cricket)

Talks of an American Twenty20 league started in November 2018 just before USA Cricket became the new governing body of cricket in the United States.[6][7] In May 2021, USA Cricket announced they had accepted a bid by American Cricket Enterprises (ACE) for a US$1 billion investment covering the league and other investments benefitting the U.S. national teams.[8]

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,[9] but it was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic[10] and due to the lack of high-quality cricket stadiums in the USA.[11] Major League Cricket was pushed to a summer-2023 launch[12] and Minor League Cricket was pushed back to July 31, 2021.[13]

USA Cricket CEO Iain Higgins also pointed out cities such as New York City, Houston and Los Angeles with a large cricket fanbase, and targeted them among others as launch cities for Minor League Cricket.[14]

In July 2020, the player registration for the Minor League Cricket exhibition league began.[15] On August 15, 2020, USA Cricket announced the teams participating in the exhibition league matches, also listing the owners for each team.[16] The draft for the exhibition league began on August 22, 2020,[17] with the New Jersey Stallions releasing their squad on August 24.[18] Nikhil Dutta was later named as captain for the New Jersey Stallions in the exhibition league.[19]

After the conclusion of the exhibition league, USA Cricket announced that they were planning to launch the inaugural season of Minor League Cricket in spring 2021.[20] Ahead of the official season, which was announced to kick off on July 31,[21] they announced Jasdeep Singh as captain and Justin Dill as vice-captain.[3]

In their first match of the season, they defeated the Morrisville Cardinals by 20 runs, and also defeated the Param Veers by 83 runs the following day.[22] They then went on to win against the Titans twice,[23][24] the Philadelphians,[25] the Hawks,[26] the Yorkers,[25] the Cavaliers twice,[24][27] and the Eagles twice.[23][28] They additionally lost against the Hawks,[26] the Yorkers,[23] the Galaxy,[29] and the Ft. Lauderdale Lions.[29] The Stallions topped the group, and qualified for the quarter-finals.[25]

In the quarterfinals, the Stallions swept the Cardinals 2 to nothing in a best-of-three series, thus qualifying them for the semifinals.[30] In the semifinals, the Stallions faced the Titans,[31] and defeated them by 5 wickets.[32] In the finals, the Silicon Valley Strikers beat the Stallions by 6 wickets in a thriller to take home the trophy.[33]

Nat.	Player	Span	Matches	Innings	Runs	Average	HS	100	50
	Saiteja Mukkamalla	2021–present	18	17	367	26.21	68	0	2
	Dominique Rikhi	2021–present	13	13	315	24.23	46	0	0
	Jon-Ross Campbell	2021–present	16	15	291	24.25	65	0	2
	Hiren Patel	2021-present	18	14	211	19.18	48	0	0
	Rovman Powell	2021–present	5	5	200	66.67	71	0	2

Source: CricClubs, Last updated: 10 March 2022

Nat.	Player	Span	Matches	Wickets	Avg	BBI	Econ	SR	4w	5w
	Stephen Wiig	2021–present	17	27	15.07	4/35	6.84	13.2	1	0
	Justin Dill	2021–present	18	21	20.05	4/26	6.90	17.4	1	0
	Sachin Mylavarapu	2021–present	18	20	18.00	3/20	5.62	19.2	0	0
	Jasdeep Singh	2021–present	11	18	11.50	4/13	5.22	13.2	1	0
	Raymond Ramrattan	2021–present	16	17	15.65	3/13	6.79	13.8	0	0

Source: CricClubs, Last updated: 10 March 2022