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Follow UsThe Duleep Trophy will be a mega affair this season with most of India's international players plying their trade. Though it has not been the biggest red-ball domestic tournament in terms of star attraction in at least the last two decades, the Duleep Trophy was a big thing back in the early 2000s with overseas teams coming to India to be a part of this (then) zonal tournament.
The 2003-04 Duleep Trophy was the first one to invite an overseas team. However, the process stopped after the 2007/08 season.
Here are the overseas teams that participated in the Duleep Trophy and how they fared in it.
England A
England A was the first overseas team to participate in an Indian domestic cricket tournament. Though they failed to win even a single game out of the two they played in the Duleep Trophy 2003-04, Kevin Pietersen showed that he was not someone to let go of the opportunities. He became the highest run-scorer in the tournament. In just four innings, the South African-born Englishman smashed 345 runs at an average of 86.25.
Interestingly, it was the season in which Indian stalwarts like Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni, Gautam Gambhir and Ashish Nehra played. Venugopal Rao was the second-highest run-getter in the tournament which was won by North Zone, led by Dinesh Mongia.
BCB XI
The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) XI was the second team invited to the Duleep Trophy. They participated in the 2004-05 season and, much like England A, they also were unable to win any game. They, however, drew one of their two games. After losing to the East Zone, they drew against the Central Zone.
The season which was won by the Central Zone saw Bangladesh's future stars players like Mohammad Ashraful, Alok Kapali, Abdur Razzak and Aftab Ahmed feature in it. Yuvraj was the highest run-getter with 291 runs in four innings and Jai Prakash Yadav was the highest wicket-taker with 20 wickets.
Zimbabwe Cricket President’s XI
BCCI then invited the Zimbabwe Cricket President’s XI for the 2005-06 Duleep Trophy. The team consisted of future Zimbabwe stars like Hamilton Masakadza, Brendan Taylor, Prosper Utseya and Graeme Cremer. However, they failed to impress a lot as only Masakadza got a hundred and a fifty to his name and featured in the top run-scorers list of the tournament headed by Wasim Jaffer. West Zone won the tournament by beating East in the final.
Sri Lanka A
Sri Lanka A became the first overseas team to win a match in the Duleep Trophy as they beat West Zone in their first-ever match in the 2006-07 season. The Lankan A team then also defeated South Zone by three wickets to make it to the final.
That Sri Lankan A team featured the likes of Thilan Samaraweera, Jehan Mubarak, Chamara Silva and Rangana Herath, who went on to represent the national team in the longest format. In the final though, the Lankan team lost to North Zone as Aakash Chopra, Ravneet Vicky and Mahesh Rawat hit centuries and Rajesh Sharma took a five-wicket haul.
Malinda Warnapura, Silva and, surprisingly, Joginder Sharma were the top-three run-scorers in the tournament
England Lions
The English Lions were the last overseas team to feature in the Duleep Trophy (2007/08). They won one of their games against Central Zone and lost to West Zone to bow out of the tournament.
Future England players like Michael Carberry, Joe Denly, Ed Joyce, Jonathan Trott, Adil Rashid, Liam Plunkett and Monty Panesar featured for the Lions in that series. The tournament was won by North Zone.
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