Chicago Blasters
# Chicago Blasters

The Chicago Blasters are an American professional Twenty20 franchise cricket team that compete in Minor League Cricket (MiLC). The team is based in Chicago, Illinois. It was formed in 2020 as part of 24 original teams to compete in Minor League Cricket. The franchise is owned by Iftekhar Shareef, Khurram Syed, and ACAC.

The team's home ground is BPL Cricket Stadium, located in Bolingbrook, Illinois. Local Blasters cricket player Ashhar Medhi helms captaincy duties, while former American cricketer Fahad Babar stands by as vice-captain.

Shaheer Hassan and Najam Iqbal lead the bowling and batting leaderboards with 311 runs and 22 wickets respectively.

## Franchise history

### Background

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. 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.

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, but it was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic 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, Houston and Los Angeles 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, USA Cricket 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 Chicago Blasters releasing their squad on September 12. Ibrahim Khaleel was later named as captain for the Blasters, with Fahad Babar down for vice-captaincy duties for the exhibition league.

### 2021 season

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. Ahead of the official season, which was announced to kick off on July 31, the Blasters announced Fahad Babar as captain with Abul Hasan helming vice-captain duties.

Throughout the group stage, the Blasters won against the Athletics once, the Catchers twice, and the Americans once. However, the Blasters lost once against the Strikers, the Grizzlies and the Americans, while losing twice to the Mustangs, the Hurricanes, and the Stars. The Blasters finished 6th in their group, thus not advancing to the play-offs.

### 2022 season

Ahead of the 2022 season, Major League Cricket announced that the draft for that season would take place on May 12. Ahead of the official season, it was announced that the captaincy role would be shifted from Khaleel to local Blasters cricketer Ashhar Medhi, with Babar once again given vice-captaincy duties.

Throughout the season, the Blasters lost to the Tigers, Hurricanes, and the Stars twice, and lost to the Blazers, the Blasters, the Grizzlies, the Mustangs, and the Americans once. The Blasters finished last in their group, despite three of their games being washed out.

## Current squad

* Players with international caps are listed in bold.

| Name | Nationality | Birth date | Batting style | Bowling style | Year signed | Notes |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Batsmen |||||||
| Awais Zia | Pakistan | (1986-09-01) 1 September 1986 (age 36) | Left-handed | Right-arm off break | 2022 | Overseas |
| Homayoon Ahmadzai | United States | (1993-07-18) 18 July 1993 (age 30) | Right-handed | Right-arm off break | 2021 | |
| Shreyas Ramesh | United States | (1988-11-12) 12 November 1988 (age 34) | Right-handed | Right-arm medium | 2022 | |
| Jay Patel | United States | (1996-01-30) 30 January 1996 (age 27) | Right-handed | Right-arm medium fast | 2022 | |
| Najam Iqbal | United States | (1988-08-10) 10 August 1988 (age 34) | Left-handed | Right-arm off break | 2021 | |
| All-rounders |||||||
| Abul Hasan | Bangladesh | (1992-08-05) 5 August 1992 (age 30) | Left-handed | Right-arm medium fast | 2021 | Overseas |
| Mohit Patel | United States | (2003-05-29) 29 May 2003 (age 20) | Right-handed | Right-arm medium fast | 2022 | |
| Abdullah Quadri | United States | (2000-07-15) 15 July 2000 (age 23) | Right-handed | Left-arm fast medium | 2022 | |
| Pankaj Kampli | United States | (1983-06-22) 22 June 1983 (age 40) | Right-handed | Right-arm leg break googly | 2021 | |
| Chiranjeevi Akunuri | United States | (1993-06-16) 16 June 1993 (age 30) | Right-handed | Right-arm medium | 2022 | |
| Fahad Babar | United States | (1992-02-19) 19 February 1992 (age 31) | Right-handed | Right-arm off break | 2021 | Vice-captain |
| Ankush Agrawal | United States | (1990-02-21) 21 February 1990 (age 33) | Right-handed | Right-arm fast | 2022 | |
| Abir Chippa | United States | (1987-08-11) 11 August 1987 (age 35) | Right-handed | Right-arm fast medium | 2022 | |
| Arjun Reddy | United States | (2004-04-26) 26 April 2004 (age 19) | Right-handed | Right-arm fast | 2022 | |
| Bowlers |||||||
| Mohammad Waqas | Pakistan | (1987-05-15) 15 May 1987 (age 36) | Right-handed | Right-arm off break | 2022 | |
| Umair Mir | Pakistan | (1990-01-27) 27 January 1990 (age 33) | Left-handed | Right-arm medium fast | 2022 | |
| Zia-ul-Haq | Pakistan | (1994-12-11) 11 December 1994 (age 28) | Right-handed | Left-arm fast medium | 2022 | |
| Datta Prakash | United States | (1992-09-29) 29 September 1992 (age 30) | Right-handed | Right-arm leg break | 2022 | |
| Kevin Philip | United States | (2006-02-01) 1 February 2006 (age 17) | Right-handed | Right-arm leg spin | 2022 | |
| Sai Daggupati | United States | (1995-05-21) 21 May 1995 (age 28) | Right-handed | Right-arm leg spin | 2022 | |
| Wicket-keepers |||||||
| Aayush Thakkar | United States | (2004-07-17) 17 July 2004 (age 19) | Right-handed | Right-arm medium fast | 2022 | |
| Shaheer Hassan | United States | (1994-02-23) 23 February 1994 (age 29) | Right-handed | Right-arm fast medium | 2021 | |
| Ashhar Mehdi | United States | (1975-09-13) 13 September 1975 (age 47) | Right-handed | Right-arm off break | 2021 | Captain |
