Ranji Trophy

The Ranji Trophy is a premier domestic first-class cricket championship played in India and organized annually by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). The teams representing regional and state cricket associations participate. BCCI founded the championship in 1934, Since then it has been organised across various grounds and stadiums in India.

The competition currently consists of 38 teams, with all 28 states in India and four of the eight union territories with at least one team from each. When the tournament was founded, it was named "the Cricket Championship of India", in 1935 it was renamed after Ranjitsinhji, who was the first Indian to play international cricket. He played for England from 1896 to 1902.

The Mumbai cricket team is the most successful team of the tournament, with a record 42 titles to their name.

The Mumbai cricket team holds the present title of the 2023–24 edition. It defeated Vidharbha cricket team in the final at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.

History
The idea of a national level, first class championship tournament was proposed by BCCI's founder A.S. De Mello. The competition was launched following BCCI's meeting at Shimla in July 1934, with the first fixtures taking place in 1934–35 .Initially the tournament was named as 'The cricket championship of India', it later was renamed. The trophy was donated by Bhupinder Singh, the Maharaja of Patiala in memory of Kumar Shri Ranjitsinhji, Jam Sahib of Nawanagar who had died the previous year. The first match of the competition was held on 4 November 1934 between Madras and Mysore at the Chepauk ground in Madras (Now Chennai). Mumbai (Bombay) has won the tournament the most times with 42 wins including 15 back-to-back wins from 1958–59 to 1972–73.

In 2015 Paytm became the first company to hold the tournament's title sponsorship right by virtue of BCCI's title sponsorship deal.

The 2020–21 Ranji Trophy tournament was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the first season since the tournament's inception that it was not held.

Participants
State and regional teams with first-class status and owned–operated by BCCI members play in the Ranji Trophy. Most associations are regional such as the Mumbai Cricket Association or the Karnataka State Cricket Association, while Railways and Services are pan-Indian.

All 28 states of India are represented, as are four of the eight union territories: Delhi, Chandigarh, Puducherry, and Jammu and Kashmir (which also represents the union territory of Ladakh). In addition, four teams represent regions within states: Mumbai and Vidarbha (both within Maharashtra) and Saurashtra and Baroda (both within Gujarat); and there are two pan-Indian teams: Railways, representing Indian Railways, and Services, representing the Indian Armed Forces. The state of Telangana is represented by the Hyderabad cricket team.

Current teams
The following 38 teams currently participate in the Ranji Trophy:

Defunct teams
The following teams have appeared in the Ranji Trophy, but no longer do so:
 * Central India (1934/35 – 1940/41)
 * Central Provinces and Berar (1934/35 – 1949/50)
 * Northern India (1934/35 – 1946/47)
 * Sind (1934/35 – 1947/48)
 * Southern Punjab (1934/35 – 1951/52, 1959/60 – 1967/68)
 * Western India (1934/35 – 1945/46)
 * Nawanagar (1936/37 – 1947/48)
 * North West Frontier Province (1937/38 – 1946/47)
 * Holkar (1941/42 – 1954/55)
 * Gwalior (1943/44)
 * Patiala/Patiala and Eastern Punjab States Union (1948/49, 1953/54 – 1958/59)
 * Eastern Punjab (1950/51 – 1959/60)
 * Travancore-Cochin (1951/52 – 1956/57)
 * Madhya Bharat (1955/56 – 1956/57)
 * Northern Punjab (1960/61 – 1967/68)

Format
From the Ranji Trophy's inception until the 2001 season (with the exception of 1948–49 season), the teams were grouped geographically into four or five zones – North, West, East, and South, with Central added in 1952–53. Initial matches were played within the zones on a knock-out basis until 1956–57, and thereafter on a league basis, to determine a winner; then, the five individual zone winners competed in a knock-out tournament, leading to a final which decided the winner of the Ranji Trophy. From the 1970–71 season, the knock-out stage was expanded to the top two teams from each zone, a total of ten qualifying teams. This was expanded again to the top three from each zone in 1992–93, a total of fifteen qualifying teams; between 1996–97 and 1999–2000, the fifteen qualifying teams competed in a secondary group stage, with three groups of five teams, and the top two from each group qualified for a six-team knock-out stage; in all other years until 2001–02, a full fifteen-team knock-out tournament was held.

The format was changed in the 2002–03 season with the zonal system abandoned and a two-division structure adopted – the Elite Group, containing fifteen teams, and the Plate Group, containing the rest. Each group had two sub-groups which played a round-robin; the top two from each Elite sub-group then contested a four-team knock-out tournament to determine the winner of the Ranji Trophy. The team which finished last in each Elite sub-group was relegated, and both Plate Group finalists were promoted for the following season. For the 2006–07 season, the divisions were re-labelled the Super League and Plate League respectively.

In the 2008–09 season, this format was adjusted to give both Super League and Plate League teams an opportunity to contest the Ranji Trophy. The top two from each Plate sub-group contested semi-finals; the winners of these two matches then joined the top three from each Super League sub-group in an eight-team knock-out tournament. The winner of this knock-out tournament then won the Ranji Trophy. Promotion and relegation between Super League and Plate League continued as before. In the 2010–11 season, Rajasthan won the Ranji Trophy after beginning the season in the Plate League.

From the 2012–13 season, this format was adjusted slightly. The Super League and Plate League names were abandoned, but the two-tier system remained. The top tier expanded from fifteen teams to eighteen teams, in two sub-groups of nine (known as Group A and Group B, and considered equal in status); and the second tier was reduced to nine teams in a single group (known as Group C). The top three teams from Groups A and B and the top two from Group C contest the knockout phase. The lowest placed team in each of Group A and Group B is relegated to Group C, and the top two from Group C are promoted to the top tier.

For the 2017–18 season, the two-tier system was abandoned to have 4 groups of seven teams each and two quarter-finalists from each group.

From the 2018–19 season, the teams contested in three-tiers. Five teams will qualify for the quarter-finals from the top tier (known as Elite Group A and Group B). Two teams will qualify from the second-tier (Elite Group C) and one team from the lower-tier (Plate Group) for the quarter-finals.

Round-robin matches are four days in length; knockout matches are played for five days. Throughout its history, if there is no outright result in a Ranji Trophy knock-out match, the team leading after the first innings is the winner.

Prior to the 2016–17 season, matches were played at the home ground of one of the two teams taking part. For the 2016–17 edition, the BCCI decided that all games would be staged at a neutral venues.

Points distribution system
Points in the league stages of both divisions are currently awarded as follows:

Tournament records
† Some sources credit Goel with 636 or 640 wickets instead – see Rajinder Goel article for details.

Winners
The following teams have won the tournament:

Finals appearances by team
Mumbai/Bombay have played in 48 finals and have won total 42 Ranji Trophy championships, the most by any team.

Karnataka

Broadcasting
Sports18 TV channel and JioCinema has exclusive rights to broadcast the trophy live on television and online respectively. BCCI's website runs match highlights. Star Sports and Disney+ Hotstar broadcast the tournament until 2022.

In popular culture

 * The tournament was featured in Jersey, a 2019 Telugu film, in which the protagonist Arjun represents the Hyderabad cricket team in the Ranji Trophy in the 1980s and 1990s.