Texas [United States of America], March 22 (ANI): Former New Zealand captain and current Chennai Super Kings coach Stephen Fleming will lead Texas Super Kings in the inaugural season of Major League Cricket.

MLC released an official statement to announce the Texas Super Kings partnership with Chennai Super Kings. The statement read, "Major League Cricket's Dallas-based team announced their team name, Texas Super Kings, along with the team coach and domestic drafted players, following the first MLC draft in history on Sunday, March 19 in HoustonTexas Super Kings also announced their partnership with Chennai Super Kings, an Indian Premier League franchise cricket team based in Chennai, India, who will bring operational expertise and help Texas compete on the field.

Texans Anurag Jain, partner with Perot Jain and chairman of Access Healthcare, and Ross Perot Jr., chairman of the Perot Group, were among the investors in a Series A funding round that will help MLC build facilities across the country.""Cricket is the second most popular sport in the world with a global fan base of around 2.5 billion followers, but there has not been an opportunity for the sport to grow in the U.S.," says Anurag Jain, co-owner of the MLC Texas Super Kings. "We look forward to having a professional team in Texas for the passionate local cricket community to root for and to introduce the sport to new fans across the country," as quoted by MLC.

All six MLC teams have gone through the domestic player draft at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. They selected nine players each from more than 100 eligible to represent the "US cricket community". The remaining players will be filled later on. (ANI)