Jitendra Narayan and his son Jagaddipendra Narayana were the Maharajas of Cooch Behar. Cooch Behar was a princely state during the British Raj and is located in the present-day West Bengal.
The father-son duo was known for having an affinity towards cricket. As a result, the family donated a cricket trophy to the official and governing body of Indian cricket in the early 1940s. The Cooch Behar Trophy was thus conceived and its inaugural edition was held in 1945.
For nearly four decades, the Cooch Behar Trophy remained an inter-school competition. After the 1986-87 edition of the tournament, the event expanded its competitiveness, and became an U-19 national cricket competition. Since then, the participating teams of the tournament represent a state of India. All teams that contest the Cooch Behar Trophy also participated in the Ranji Trophy, with the exception of Railways and Services.
As of 2024, the Cooch Behar Trophy follows a format wherein both round-robin and knockout matches are held. A total of five Elite groups will house six teams each. Additionally, there will be a plate group of six more teams. All teams will face the teams of their respective group once. Each match lasts for no more than four days.
An outright match win is worth six points and zero points are availed for a loss. A match with no result fetches one point to either side. A bonus point is given to the team for winning by ten wickets or by a margin of an innings. A tie in the first innings score of a drawn match will lead to each side getting one point. A tie in the scores of both innings of both sides will be worth three points. Three points can also be earned if a team has a lead in the first innings when a match is drawn.
The top two teams in the Plate group will play a Plate final. The winner of this match gets promoted to one of the elite groups the following year. The top two teams in each of the Elite groups will be ranked from one to ten based on their points, match wins, and win quotient. These teams later progress to the knockout rounds, starting from the quarterfinals.
As of 2025, the defending champion of the tournament is Karnataka.
