The City of Dallas officially has its own professional cricket team.
The Dallas-based National Cricket League (NCL), Dallas Parks and Recreation, local athletes, and many local leaders recently gathered at Roland G. Parrish Park in South Dallas to officially unveil the new team: the Dallas Wolves.
The NCL also announced that its inaugural tournament will be played at the park instead of in Florida as initially planned. The league will construct a brand new cricket venue at the park for teams to compete in May.
“The Dallas Wolves will proudly represent the city,” NCL chairman Arun Agarwal said in a news release. “It was important to us that the first tournament be played in Dallas. We have players from all over the world, but we represent our home – Dallas. We’re excited to bring cricket to the city. South Dallas is the perfect home.”
The Wolves join the Texas Super Kings of Major League Cricket as professional cricket teams in the DFW metroplex but are the only team to be officially based in the City of Dallas, as the Super Kings play their matches at a stadium in Grand Prairie that has been chosen to host the 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.
Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson announced the NCL had chosen Dallas as its headquarters in September, bringing one of its six franchises to the city and kicking off its inaugural season with a nine-day, non-stop cricket tournament featuring some of the best cricket players and coaches in the world and more than 30 celebrity performers.
“If you aren’t already one of the 30 million cricket enthusiasts in America, now is the time to familiarize yourself with the sport,” Mayor Johnson said in a September news release. “Sports present unique opportunities to bring together people of all backgrounds under one roof. They strengthen communities. They generate excitement. And they foster civic and national pride.”
The team was initially named the “Eagles,” but the name has since been changed to the “Wolves.”
The premier season of the NCL, which begins on March 29, 2024, will feature six teams playing “sixty-strikes” or T10 format matches, an intensified format that allows games to be completed in as little as 90 minutes and has featured higher scoring.
The other five teams in the NCL include the Houston Stars, Chicago Hurricanes, Vegas Vipers, Los Angeles Legends, and Atlanta Archers.
