Steve Smith closer to his dream of playing in New York after NSW signs deal with Major League Cricket

Star Australian batter Steve Smith’s wish of playing in his favourite city New York could well come true after New South Wales signed an exchange and development programme with Major League Cricket that is set to be played in July 2023. Although Smith will not be available to play in the MLC this season, due to The Ashes commitments, other NSW players will be seen playing in MLC, another franchise-model T20 League.

“I think the opportunities for all of our players are going to be brilliant,” Lee Germon, Cricket NSW CEO said before Friday’s official announcement. “Steve absolutely has made no secret that he loves New York, but there are also two or three other players I’ve spoken to who would love to be able to play cricket in the United States. “We’re looking at every opportunity we can to grow the game, develop the game and promote the game and I think we saw with Steve this year coming back to play with the Sixers and the BBL, the impact he had,” he said.

Smith has a special corner in his heart for New York and has been visiting the city since 2015. The Australian star batter got engaged to his wife Dani in New York back in 2017. “My wife and I just really, really love it,” Smith said. “We love the lifestyle, the speed of the city. We’ve got quite a few friends there now,” he was quoted as saying by the Sydney Morning Herald.

“I can get around and live kind of normally. It’s nice where you can just go and forget about everything else. There’s just so much to do there. I like the option of living the fast life, but you can still chill if you want to. It’s just a cool city.”

There’s no reason why cricket can’t work in the US: Steve Smith

Smith had also expressed his wish of ending his career while playing in New York. “My wife’s actually still there at the moment. It’s certainly something that we’re looking into. I’m getting a bit older now, and certainly closer to the end of my career than the start. So yeah, we’ll wait and see.”

“I mean, yeah, there’s obviously [T20] leagues popping up everywhere around the world now, and I think you’ll probably see more players in the back end of their career going down that route, so it’s potentially something I’ll look at in the future,” Smith said. “There’s no reason why cricket can’t work in the US, I wouldn’t think,” Smith said.

For a better experience: Download the CricTracker app from the IOS App Store and Google Play Store