Houston Hurricanes (cricket)

The Houston Hurricanes are an United States professional Twenty20 franchise cricket team that compete in Minor League Cricket (MiLC). The team is based in Houston, Texas. It was formed in 2020 as part of 24 original teams to compete in Minor League Cricket. The franchise is owned by Tanweer Ahmed and Mangesh Chaudhari.
The team's home ground is Prairie View, Texas#Parks and recreation, located in Prairie View, Texas. Willem Ludick was named as captain, while Saqlain Haider was named as vice-captain for the team.
The current leading run-scorer is Willem Ludick, with the highest wicket-taker being Karthik Gattepalli.
== Franchise history ==
=== Background ===
Talks of an United States|American Twenty20 league started in November 2018 just before USA Cricket became the new governing body of cricket in the Cricket in the United States|United States. In May 2021, USA Cricket announced they had accepted a bid by American Cricket Enterprises (ACE) for a US dollar|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 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|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 Houston Hurricanes releasing their squad on August 24. Shayan Jahangir was later named as captain for the Houston Hurricanes in the exhibition league.
The exhibition matches kicked off on September 12, with the Houston Hurricanes losing their first match to the Irving Mustangs by 75 runs. The Houston Hurricanes then went on to concede 3 wins and 2 losses, placing 3rd throughout the Minor League Cricket|exhibition league in the Central Division.
=== 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, they announced Willem Ludick as captain and Saqlain Haider as vice-captain.
In their first match of the season, the Houston Hurricanes defeated the Austin Athletics chasing down a total of 175 in the 20th over, winning the match by 3 wickets. They then went on to win their next 3 games by 4 wickets, 50 runs, and 76 runs respectively, until they went on to concede their first loss of the season against the Michigan Cricket Stars. Over the following weeks, the Houston Hurricanes won 8 more matches, and lost 2 more matches, thus qualifying them for the quarter-finals.
== Current squad ==
* Players with international caps are listed in bold.
* denotes a player who is currently unavailable for selection.
* denotes a player who is unavailable for rest of the season
Name 	Nat. 	Birth date 	Batting style 	Bowling style 	Signed year 	Notes 	 	
Batsmen 	Batsmen 	Batsmen 	Batsmen 	Batsmen 	Batsmen 	Batsmen 	Batsmen 	Batsmen
Ahsan Shah 	style="text-align:center"	USA 	 	Right-handed 	medium 	2021 	 	
Ali Samad 	USA 	 	Right-handed 	medium 	2021 	 	 	
Majjid Zubair 	USA 	 	Right-handed 	Right-arm leg-break 	2021 	 	 	
Naseer Jamali 	USA 	 	Right-handed 	medium 	2020 	 	 	
Rishi Ramesh 	USA 	 	Right-handed 	medium 	2021 	 	 	
Slade van Staden 	SA 	 	Right-handed 	Right-arm leg-break 	2021 	Overseas 	 	
Usman Rafiq 	USA 	 	Right-handed 	Right-arm off break 	2020 	 	 	
Willem Ludick 	SA 	 	Right-handed 	medium 	2021 	captain 	 	
All-rounders 	All-rounders 	All-rounders 	All-rounders 	All-rounders 	All-rounders 	All-rounders 	All-rounders 	All-rounders
Ali Khan (American cricketer)|Ali Khan	USA 	 	Right-handed 	medium 	2020 	 	 	
Ashley Nurse 	BAR 	 	Right-handed 	Right-arm off break 	2021 	Overseas 	 	
Derwish Ali 	USA 	 	Right-handed 	fast 	2021 	 	 	
Haris Qureshi 	USA 	 	Right-handed 	medium 	2021 	 	 	
Karthik Gattepalli 	USA 	 	Left-handed 	Left-arm orthodox spin	2021 	 	 	
Shuja Naqvi 	USA 	 	Right-handed 	medium 	2020 	 	 	
Sudhir Hinge 	USA 	 	Right-handed 	Right-arm fast medium 	2021 	 	 	
Sushant Modani 	USA 	 	Right-handed 	Right-arm off break 	2021 	 	 	
Waleed Ahmed (cricketer)|Waleed Ahmed 	PAK 	 	Right-handed 	Right-arm off break 	2020 	Overseas 	 	
Wicket-keepers 	Wicket-keepers 	Wicket-keepers	Wicket-keepers	Wicket-keepers 	Wicket-keepers	Wicket-keepers	Wicket-keepers	Wicket-keepers
Rana Ali 	IND 	 	Right-handed 	medium 	2020 	Overseas 	 	
Saqlain Haider 	UAE 	 	Left-handed 	 	2020 	Overseas 	 	
== Statistics ==
=== Most runs ===
Nat.	Player 	Span 	Matches	Innings	Runs	Average	HS	100	50
SA 	Willem Ludick 	2021-present	12 	11 	381 	47.62 	60	0 	4
UAE 	Saqlain Haider 	2020-present	15 	14 	280 	40.00 	63	0 	1
SA 	Slade van Staden	2021-present	12 	9 	177 	25.29 	29	0 	0
PAK 	Burhan Johar 	2020 	7 	7 	138 	19.71 	46	0 	0
USA 	Sushant Modani 	2021-present	7 	7 	134 	22.33 	56	0 	1
Source: CricClubs, Last updated: 21 September 2021
=== Most wickets ===
Nat.	Player 	Span 	Matches	Wickets	Avg 	BBI 	Econ	SR 	4w	5w
USA 	Karthik Gattepalli	2021-present	15 	24 	14.79	4/12	5.92	15.0	2 	0
USA 	Usman Rafiq 	2020-present	15 	16 	20.31	3/16	6.77	18.0	0 	0
USA 	Naseer Jamali 	2020-present	12 	15 	19.40	2/16	7.10	16.4	0 	0
BAR 	Chaim Holder 	2020 	7 	9 	20.67	2/12	6.89	18.0	0 	0
BAR 	Ashley Nurse 	2021-present	5 	8 	11.38	3/14	5.06	13.5	0 	0
Source: CricClubs, Last updated: 21 September 2021
Category:Minor League Cricket
Category:Minor League Cricket teams