Domestic Cricket: Top 10 Cricket Tournaments in India

lSaying that cricket is a popular sport in India would be an understatement. The craze for the game is massive. Every young child picks up a bat and ball and there is cricket being played in every street. 

It has been this way, at least for the last four decades or so, especially since India won the 1983 World Cup. A lot of kids dream of playing for India from a very young age. However, there is a big process, domestic cricket and a list of cricket tournaments in India that they have to go through (could be an exception to some). To play at the top level, there are various age-group competitions and division cricket in different states before they graduate to feature in the premier domestic tournaments. 

There are as many as 38 domestic cricket teams in India at the moment. It has varied over the years. Currently, all 28 states (some states even have more than one team participating) along with four out of the eight union territories have a team that competes in domestic cricket and battle it out for various trophies across different formats. All of these are organized by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).  

So, here, let’s look at that list of cricket tournaments in India.  

MEN’S CRICKET 

Ranji Trophy 

In the Indian domestic cricket circuit, Ranji Trophy is at the top and it is the premier first-class domestic competition in the country. It could be also termed as the pinnacle of all cricket tournaments in India. 

The BCCI founded the tournament way back in 1934, a couple of years after India made their debut in Test (international) cricket. The inaugural season (1934-35) was named as ‘the Cricket Championship of India’ before it was renamed in the following year.  

The coveted Indian domestic trophy was renamed after the great Ranjitsinhji who was the first-ever Indian to feature in international cricket. His cricket playing career spanned for more than 25 years but his international career last six years where he played a total of 15 Test matches for England. 

The Indian tournament started with just seven teams but slowly expanded, becoming one of the largest run domestic cricket tournaments in the world. 

In its current state, all the league and group-stage games in the Ranji Trophy are four-day affairs. An outright win gives teams six points but if they win by an innings or 10 wickets, they get seven points. If the match ends in a draw, the team with the first innings lead is awarded three points while the other team is given one. 

Teams are divided in a total of five groups – 32 teams are placed in four main groups while six teams are put in a Plate Division. Top two teams from each main group advance to the quarter-finals. Meanwhile, the Plate Division has a separate semi-final and final. The finalists get promoted to the main groups while the bottom-placed teams of the first two groups are relegated to the Plate Division. 

It’s been 90 years since the Ranji Trophy started and only once was it fully cancelled. That was because of the COVID-19 pandemic in the 2020-21 season.  

Mumbai are the reigning champions. They have won the Ranji Trophy a whopping 42 times. Karnataka have won it eight times while Delhi have lifted the coveted Indian domestic trophy seven times. Baroda and Madhya Pradesh follow with five Ranji title victories. 

The following are the teams that take part in the Ranji Trophy with their debut years: 

• Mumbai (1934–35) 
• Karnataka / Mysore (1934–35) 
• Delhi (1934–35) 
• Baroda (1937–38) 
• Madhya Pradesh / Holkar (1941–42) 
• Bengal (1935–36) 
• Hyderabad (1934–35) 
• Maharashtra (1934–35) 
• Tamil Nadu / Madras (1934–35) 
• Rajasthan / Rajputana (1935–36) 
• Saurashtra (1936–37) 
• Vidarbha (1957–58) 
• Railways (1958–59) 
• Uttar Pradesh / United Provinces (1934–35) 
• Gujarat (1935–36) 
• Punjab (1968–69) 
• Haryana (1970–71) 
• Bihar (1936–37) 
• Assam (1948–49) 
• Odisha / Orissa (1949–50) 
• Services (1949–50) 
• Andhra (1953–54) 
• Kerala (1957–58) 
• Jammu and Kashmir (1959–60) 
• Goa (1985–86) 
• Himachal Pradesh (1985–86) 
• Tripura (1985–86) 
• Jharkhand (2004–05) 
• Chhattisgarh (2016–17) 
• Arunachal Pradesh (2018–19) 
• Manipur (2018–19) 
• Meghalaya (2018–19) 
• Mizoram (2018–19) 
• Nagaland (2018–19) 
• Pondicherry (2018–19) 
• Sikkim (2018–19) 
• Uttarakhand (2018–19) 
• Chandigarh (2019–20) 

Vijay Hazare Trophy 

One-Day International cricket came into existence in 1971. However, it took more than two decades for the BCCI to introduce a domestic 50-over tournament in India. When it was put in place in the 1993-94 season, five World Cups had already been played.  

Originally known as the Ranji One-Day Trophy, the first nine editions were played zone-wise. In fact, it was not a national tournament. Teams were restricted within their respective zones i.e. North, South, East, West and Central. There were winners from every zone and there was no single winner for the first nine seasons.  

In 2002-03 and 2003-04, the top teams from each zone played a round-robin format where the table-toppers emerged as champions. It was only in the 2004-05 season that a final was introduced. 

After 14 seasons of this domestic 50-over trophy, the BCCI renamed it to the Vijay Hazare Trophy in memory of the great cricketer who passed away in December 2004. It is the same even now and it is one of the most rated cricket trophies in the Indian domestic cricket circuit. Until then, the Vijay Hazare Trophy was the name of an Under-19 Indian domestic trophy which was played for more than two decades. 

Ever since it became a national-wide tournament, Tamil Nadu have been the most successful side, winning the Vijay Hazare Trophy as many as five times. Karnataka and Mumbai have won it four times each. 

Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 

T20 cricket has transformed the game in a massive way. Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy is India’s premier domestic T20 competition. It was first played in the 2006-07 season and has been a key part of the Indian domestic cricket over the last two decades. 

The Indian domestic T20 trophy started off with teams being divided into their respective zones and the top teams qualifying for the knockouts from there. However, the format has undergone quite a few changes.  

Currently, the 38 teams are placed in five groups. There are three groups which comprise of eight teams while the other two consist of seven teams. The top-placed team from each group advances to the knockout stages directly while the other three teams are the three best runners-up combined from all five groups. The knockout stages see the eight teams compete in quarter-finals, semi-finals and eventually, the final. 

Tamil Nadu have the most number of title wins in the Syed Mushtaq Ai Trophy which is three. Baroda, Karnataka and Mumbai have won it two times each. 

Duleep Trophy 

The Duleep Trophy is another first-class tournament but it is much shorter than the Ranji Trophy. It was formed back in 1961-62 with the idea of having the five zones square off against each other. The red-ball Indian domestic trophy was named after Duleepsinhji who played 12 Test matches for England and his domestic playing career spanned for nearly a decade. 

For many years (barring a few exceptions), the Duleep Trophy has been played in a zonal format. It used to be a knockout structure before it was replaced by a league-stage structure in the 1993-94 season. Between the 2003-04 and 2008-09 seasons, the BCCI invited overseas guest teams to feature in the Duleep Trophy before it was dropped. 

However, in 2016-17, the BCCI replaced it with three teams, namely India Blue, Red and Green and that lasted till 2019-20. The latest tournament (2024-25) was played with four teams and they were India A, B, C and D. 

For the 2016-17 edition, the BCCI trialed the tournament with a pink-ball and day-night fixtures. The tournament was cancelled in the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons due to the COVID-19 pandemic. When it made a comeback in 2022-23, the original zonal format also returned but it lasted just one season.   

Irani Cup 

Irani Cup is just a one-off encounter where the current Ranji Trophy champions face a Rest of India (RoI) team which comprises of the best players from the remaining states. The BCCI picks the Rest of India team. The trophy is named after Zal R. Irani who was BCCI’s long-standing president and one of the integral members of the Indian cricket board for more than four decades. 

The Irani Cup was started in the 1959-60 season to celebrate BCCI’s 25^th anniversary. It was in 1962 that the board decided to make it an annual one-off game. Till the 2012-13 season, it used to be played at the start of the Indian domestic cricket season. After that, the BCCI moved it to the back end of the season. It is often played as the last game of the domestic calendar in India. 

Rest of India have won the title 30 times while Mumbai has won it 15 times. Karnataka have played eight games and won six. 

WOMEN’S CRICKET 

Senior Women’s One-Day Trophy 

The premier domestic one-day tournament for women is known as the Senior Women’s One-Day Trophy. While the women’s team have been active in international and world cricket since the 1970s, a full-fledged domestic cricket tournament in India was started only in the 2006-07 season.  

The inaugural edition had 24 teams taking part from different states but it has constantly evolved with more teams being added. The latest 2024-25 season featured 37 teams. The tournament format initially had teams distributed into different zones and the top two teams qualified for the knockouts before the semi-finals and final was played.  

However, it has gone through multiple changes over the years, including the addition and deletion of teams. The most recent format sees 30 top teams being divided into five groups of six while the remaining seven teams are placed in a Plate Division. The table-toppers from each group advance to the quarter-finals directly while the second and third-placed teams face off in the pre-quarter-finals.  

In the Senior Women’s One-Day Trophy, Railways have dominated like none other and have won the title 15 times. Bengal and Delhi are the only other teams to have won the championship. 

Senior Women’s T20 Trophy 

The Senior Women’s T20 Trophy started a couple of years after the one-day cup i.e. in 2008-09. It began with 28 teams and has now expanded to 37. It is the same structure as the Senior Women’s One-Day Trophy but it is in the T20 format.  

The flow of the format and structure was also the same as the women’s domestic T20 trophy, which started with being a zonal event before the top teams moved to the knockouts. From the 2013-14 season, teams were divided into different groups along with the Plate Division.  

Like the 50-over format, Railways have dominated this Indian tournament as well. They have won the title 11 times while Mumbai have won it twice. Meanwhile, Delhi and Punjab have one title win each. 

Senior Women’s Challenger Trophy (One-Day and T20) 

The Senior Women’s One-Day and T20 Challenger Trophy are two other major tournaments in the women’s domestic calendar in India. These tournaments are similar to the Duleep Trophy for men. The teams are segregated into either colours (Blue, Red, Green) or alphabets (A, B, C) and top players from all the teams are distributed in these teams before a round-robin format is played. There are three teams competing more often than not or at max, four. 

OTHER TOURNAMENTS 

While the above list of list of cricket tournaments in India are the premier ones, there are some other substantial competitions as well. Here is another list of tournaments played in India across age groups: 

• MEN’S CRICKET 
  • Deodhar Trophy: It is a white-ball (50-over) version of the Duleep Trophy. It was initially played zone-wise before the BCCI started picking different teams. 

• WOMEN’S CRICKET 
  • Senior Women’s Inter Zonal Multi-Day Trophy: It is the premier first-class tournament for women. It was last played in the 2017-18 season. 

• UNDER-19 CRICKET 
  • CK Nayudu Trophy 
  • Cooch Behar Trophy 
  • Vinoo Mankad Trophy