Duleep Trophy

The Duleep Trophy, also known as IDFC First Bank Duleep trophy due to sponsorship reasons, is a domestic first-class cricket competition played in India. Named after former cricketer Duleepsinhji, the competition was largely contested by teams representing various geographical zones of India with few exceptions and special invitees. From 2016–17 to 2019–20, it was contested by specific teams chosen by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). The championship reverted to the original format in 2022-23 following a three-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic. South zone won the 2023 tournament and are the defending champions.

History
The competition was established by the BCCI in the 1961–62 season. The tournament was contested between the different geographical zones of India namely, North, South, East, West and Central. The inaugural tournament was won by West Zone who defeated South Zone in the final by ten wickets. In the 1962–63 season, four of the five teams except Central Zone included a West Indian test cricketer as a part of the teams.

The original format was that the five teams played each other on a knock-out basis. From the 1993–94 season, the competition converted to a league format before moving back to the knock-out format for four seasons. The tournament again reverted to a league format for three seasons from 2000–01. For the 2002–03 season, the zonal teams were replaced by five teams representing respective Ranji trophy groups but the format lasted only one season. From the 2003–04 season, the five original zonal teams competed along with a sixth guest team which was a touring foreign team. The first guest team was England A in 2003–04. From the 2009-10 season, the guest team was dropped, with the original five-team knockout tournament being used until the 2014–15 season.

The championship was not held in 2015–16 but returned to in 2016–17 with a new format where three teams chosen by the BCCI took part, designated as Blue, Green and Red. The teams played a round-robin tournament, with the top two advancing to the final. All games were staged as day-night games and used pink cricket balls. The trophy was cancelled for three seasons due to Covid-19 and the zonal format returned when it was re-started in 2022-23 with the original five zonal teams joined by a new North East zone.

Composition of teams
Each zonal team is a composite team of cricketers who play for the Ranji Trophy state/city teams situated in that region of India. The teams which compose each zone are as follows:


 * North Zone
 * Chandigarh
 * Delhi
 * Haryana
 * Himachal Pradesh
 * Jammu & Kashmir
 * Punjab
 * Services
 * South Zone
 * Andhra Pradesh
 * Goa
 * Hyderabad
 * Karnataka
 * Kerala
 * Pondicherry
 * Tamil Nadu
 * Central Zone
 * Chhattisgarh
 * Madhya Pradesh
 * Railways
 * Rajasthan
 * Uttarakhand
 * Uttar Pradesh
 * Vidarbha
 * East Zone
 * Assam
 * Bihar
 * Bengal
 * Jharkhand
 * Orissa
 * Tripura
 * North East Zone
 * Arunachal Pradesh
 * Manipur
 * Meghalaya
 * Mizoram
 * Nagaland
 * Sikkim
 * West Zone
 * Baroda
 * Gujarat
 * Maharashtra
 * Mumbai
 * Saurashtra

Winners
West zone with 19 trophies is the most successful team in the competition. South zone are the defending champions.

Finals appearances by team
Note: The Wins include the shared trophies and the win percentage counts shared as half a win.

Broadcasters
Sports18 is the official television broadcaster of Duleep trophy and holds the internet streaming rights to stream on the JioCinema app from 2023 to 2028.