Cognizant, the data technology and business service firm, has signed on as the inaugural title sponsor for the Major League Cricket (MLC) US Twenty20 (T20) competition.

The tournament’s second edition will begin on July 4 this year, with six franchise teams across the US involved, and will be called Cognizant Major League Cricket, it has been unveiled today.

This comes as a significant tie-up for the league, which launched last year and is owned by American Cricket Enterprises. That company won a competitive tender in May 2019 to fund and develop a professional T20 league in the US.

It also adds to Cognizant’s sports sponsorship portfolio, which is already bulging - the brand has deals in place with golf’s PGA and LPGA, sailing’s SailGP, as well as what used to be a title sponsorship deal with Aston Martin from motor racing’s Formula 1.

Vijay Srinivasan, Major League Cricket’s co-founder, said: “This multi-year partnership will help enable the continued growth of MLC and cricket in America as this new era in the United States for the world’s second-largest sport continues to bloom.”

For the first edition of MLC, online betting brand Betway was unveiled as the competition’s main commercial partner.

The six teams competing are the Texas Super Kings, Los Angeles Knight Riders, MI New York, San Francisco Unicorns, Seattle Orcas, and Washington Freedom.

Cognizant’s most recent tie-up in the sports sponsorship space came in late December when it was named the title partner of a South Florida PGA Tour golf event.