FEATURE
Follow UsIt’s a busy time if you have some interest in the game of cricket. Miles away from India, New Zealand is hosting the Women’s ODI World Cup, then for the purists, there is the Benaud-Qadir Trophy being played between Australia and Pakistan. Back home, India is playing against Sri Lanka in a Test match at Mohali which also happens to be Virat Kohli’s 100th Test match.
Amidst all these high-profile fixtures, India’s premier domestic tournament – Ranji Trophy quietly reached a monumental landmark. The match between Jammu Kashmir and Railway played at Chennai was the 5000th game of the tournament. Interestingly, 87 years back, the first Ranji Trophy match was also played in the same city between Madras and Mysore. This match got over in just a day with Madras winning by an innings and 23 runs.
But that day in the November of 1934 had sown the seeds, whose benefits we are seeing today. It wasn’t the case that cricket tournaments had not been played in the country till that time. Bombay Pentangular invited players from different parts of the country and there were other similar tournaments in a few other cities. But what Ranji Trophy did was to give the game a pan-India impetus.
This trophy named after Ranjitsinhji, the Jam Saheb of Nawanagar, is the most coveted one in Indian domestic cricket. It was initially called as the ‘Cricket Championship of India’ and the trophy was donated by Bhupinder Singh, the Maharaja of Patiala.
Over these eight decades, it has seen several nail-biting encounters and umpteen sterling performances by talented players. With 41 victories, Mumbai have dominated the circuit like no other team. The next most successful team is Karnataka with eight titles and is closely followed by Delhi with seven.
There are players who have got their rewards after toiling it hard in the Ranji Trophy in the form of an India cap. A classic example is that of VVS Laxman who went back to domestic cricket after being dropped from the Indian team to emerge as the highest ever run-getter in a Ranji season (1415 runs) in 1999-2000. He never looked back after that.
But at the same time, there are others whose runs or wickets have not translated into a call to the national team. As surprising as it may sound, the tournament’s highest wicket-taker (with a tally of 637 wickets) – Rajinder Goel never got a chance to play for India. Similar is the case of Amol Mazumdar who is the second-highest run-getter (9205 runs) in the tournament’s history. The holder of the record of the highest runs currently, Wasim Jaffer (12038 runs) had a better fate than Mazumdar and did represent India with moderate success.
Today, the tournament may not see participation from India stars due to the hectic cricket calendar, but there was a time in the 1970s when a Bombay vs Karnataka match attracted as many spectators as a Mumbai Indians vs Chennai Super Kings match would do in IPL. Watching BS Chandrasekhar bowl to Sunil Gavaskar or Dilip Vengsarkar up against Kapil Dev was a sight to behold for the cricket connoisseurs.
With the advent of the Indian Premier League (IPL), few youngsters do try to fast-track their position in the Indian team by a good showing in the T20 extravaganza, but they would ignore Ranji Trophy at their own cost in the long run. These 5000 Ranji Trophy matches played across the length and breadth of the country have been instrumental in building the castle of Indian cricket. It is the foundation rock on which the laurels of 303 Indian Test cricketers’ rest.
Whether it gets back the fan following and attention that it once enjoyed is something only time and the will of the BCCI would tell, but if the longer format of the game has to survive then the cradle of Indian cricket cannot be overlooked. Like it has always done, it will quietly keep supplying Indian cricket with talent.
May we have more competitive and quality games in the Ranji Trophy for years to come!
