Legends League Cricket or LLCT20, which is also called Skyexch.net Legends League Cricket because it is sponsored by Skyexch.net, is a T-20 cricket league with players who have recently retired from playing for their country. In January 2022, the first Legends League Cricket game was played at the Oman Cricket Academy Ground in Muscat. Three teams, the India Maharajas, the Asia Lions, and the World Giants, were there. The second one took place in India in September 2022, and teams from six major cities that were privately owned took part. The second season of the league was all about India’s 75th Independence Day celebrations, which were called Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav.
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Absolute Legends Sports Pvt. Ltd. is in charge of running the league. Ravi Shastri, a former Indian cricket player and the coach of the Indian men’s national cricket team, is the league’s Commissioner.
History of Legend League Cricket:
The Legends League Cricket is run by Absolute Legends Sports Pvt Ltd, which is a company owned by Raman Raheja and Vivek Khushalani. Ravi Shastri was named Commissioner of the League in November 2021, right after he stopped being the head coach of the Indian National Cricket team. Wasim Akram is a cricket player from Pakistan, and he and Ravi Shastri are both on the Apex Council for LLC.
Former captain of the Indian women’s cricket team Jhulan Goswami is the Women’s Empowerment Ambassador for the league. Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan is the Brand ambassador. Legends League Cricket put Andrew Leipus in charge of sports science so that the recently retired cricketers can still play competitively. His job is very important for improving the cricketers’ fitness and physical skills.
First season:
For the first season of the league, the captains of each team were the famous cricket players Virender Sehwag (India Maharajas), Misbah ul Haq (Asia Lions), and Darren Sammy (World Giants). In the league, famous cricket players like Brett Lee, Shoaib Akhtar, Muttiah Muralitharan, Kevin Pietersen, Irfan Pathan, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Mohammad Kaif, Sanath Jayasuriya, and Mohammad Yousuf, among others, played against each other to rekindle old rivalries. Shahid Afridi, Yuvraj Singh, and Harbhajan Singh were also supposed to play in the league, but they had to pull out because of the pandemic or other personal reasons.
The league started a special project to give women more power in cricket. An all-female team of match officials ran the whole first edition, which was the first time anything like that had happened in men’s cricket.
The top sports TV networks, such as Sony Pictures Sports Network and Sony Liv, bought the rights to show the league’s games in India. Geo Sports bought the TV rights in Pakistan. In Sri Lanka, the rights for the area were bought by Supreme TV. Crictracker bought the rights to stream audio and video around the world.
First edition squads:
| India Maharajas | Asia Lions | World Giants |
| Mohammad Kaif (c) Virender Sehwag (c) Yuvraj Singh Harbhajan Singh Hemang Badani Subramaniam Badrinath Rajat Bhatia Amit Bhandari Stuart Binny Nikhil Chopra Manpreet Gony Wasim Jaffer Naman Ojha (wk) Pragyan Ojha Munaf Patel Irfan Pathan Yusuf Pathan Venugopal Rao Aavishkar Salvi R. P. Singh | Misbah-ul-Haq (c) Asghar Afghan Shoaib Akhtar Kamran Akmal (wk) Tillakaratne Dilshan Dilhara Fernando Umar Gul Mohammad Hafeez Sanath Jayasuriya Romesh Kaluwitharana (wk) Azhar Mahmood Ajantha Mendis Muttiah Muralitharan Mohammad Rafique Upul Tharanga (wk) Chaminda Vaas Habibul Bashar Mohammad Yousuf | Darren Sammy (c) Corey Anderson Kevin O’Brien Herschelle Gibbs Brad Haddin (wk) Matthew Hoggard Brett Lee Albie Morkel Morne Morkel Phil Mustard (wk) Monty Panesar Kevin Pietersen Jonty Rhodes Owais Shah Ryan Sidebottom Imran Tahir Jonathan Trott Daniel Vettori |
Second season:
After the first one went well, LLC said that the league would be held in India from September 17 to October 5, 2022, with a new format. The format of the new edition was based on franchises, which was different from the format of the first edition, which was based on regions. There are now four new teams, and each one is privately owned and run. Many former international cricket players have said that they are involved.
Ravi Shastri announced in August 2022 that the new league would honour the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations marking the 75th anniversary of India’s independence with a special match between India Maharajas and World Giants. The match will take place on September 16, 2022, at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens. Sourav Ganguly, the president of the BCCI and a former captain of India, and Eoin Morgan, a former captain of England who won the World Cup, will lead their respective teams.
The league has said that this season will have 15 games, plus a special match to honor the league’s 50th anniversary. This edition will be played in 6 different cities, it was said. The matches will take place in Kolkata, Lucknow, Delhi, Cuttack, Jodhpur, and Rajkot. The league was shown on Star Sports Network in India, which had bought the rights to do so. In September 2022, it was announced that Virender Sehwag, one of India’s best openers, and Jacques Kallis, a legendary South African all-rounder, will lead India Maharajas and World Giants, respectively.
Teams:
| Team | Owner | Captain | Coach |
| Bhilwara Kings | LNJ Bhilwara Group | Irfan Pathan | Lalchand Rajput |
| Gujarat Giants | Adani Sportsline | Virender Sehwag | Venkatesh Prasad |
| India Capitals | GMR Group | Gautam Gambhir | Pravin Amre |
| Manipal Tigers | Manipal Education and Medical Group | Harbhajan Singh | John Buchanan |
Squads:
| Bhilwara Kings | India Capitals | Gujarat Giants | Manipal Tigers |
| Irfan Pathan (c) Yusuf Pathan Monty Panesar Naman Ojha (wk) William Porterfield Fidel Edwards Samit Patel Matt Prior (wk) Nick Compton S. Sreesanth Shane Watson Tim Bresnan Owais Shah Tino Best Sudeep Tyagi Tanmay Srivastava Dinesh Salunkhe Rajesh Bishnoi Jesal Karia Rahul Sharma Dhammika Prasad Morné van Wyk | Gautam Gambhir (c) Dwayne Smith Pravin Tambe Denesh Ramdin (wk) Asghar Afghan Mitchell Johnson Liam Plunkett Rajat Bhatia Hamilton Masakadza Mashrafe Mortaza John Mooney Prosper Utseya Ross Taylor Jacques Kallis Farveez Maharoof Pankaj Singh Solomon Mire Ashley Nurse Suhail Sharma Praveen Gupta Pawan Suyal | Virender Sehwag (c) Tillakaratne Dilshan Chris Gayle Parthiv Patel (wk) Ajantha Mendis Manvinder Bisla Lendl Simmons Mitchell McClenaghan Stuart Binny Kevin O’Brien Daniel Vettori Ashok Dinda Joginder Sharma Graeme Swann Richard Levi Chris Tremlett Elton Chigumbura K. P. Appanna Yashpal Singh Rayad Emrit Sreenath Aravind | Harbhajan Singh (c) Brett Lee Daren Sammy Imran Tahir Corey Anderson Phil Mustard (wk) Mohammad Kaif Ryan Sidebottom Lance Klusener Dimitri Mascarenhas Romesh Kaluwitharana (wk) Reetinder Sodhi Parvinder Awana VRV Singh Swapnil Asnodkar Ravikant Shukla Pardeep Sahu Ricardo Powell Tatenda Taibu Christopher Mpofu |
Points table:
In a double round-robin format, each team will play against every other team twice, for a total of 12 league games. The top three teams out of the four will make it to the playoffs.
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | NR | Pts | NRR |
| 1 | India Capitals | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 1.001 |
| 2 | Bhilwara Kings | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 7 | −0.142 |
| 3 | Gujarat Giants | 6 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 5 | −0.366 |
| 4 | Manipal Tigers | 6 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 5 | −0.467 |
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