The Duleep Trophy is a first-class cricket tournament of India. It was first held in 1961-62 by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). The tournament was named in honor of Kumar Shree Duleepsinghji, one of the most prolific batters who represented British India.
The tournament comprises of teams that represent a zone of India. The zonal format comprised of five teams initially: North Zone, South Zone, East Zone, West Zone and Central Zone. The tournament follows a knock-out format, but has seen a lot of variations in its proceedings over the years.
A league format was held in 1993-94 for the first time. In 2002-03, the tournament drew inspiration from the Ranji Trophy and had three Elite and two Plate teams. Between 2003 to 2008, an additional guest foreign tema participated in the event.
The 2016 season saw another rewamp in the event’s format, with the BCCI choosing three teams – India Red, India Blue and India Green. Each of these teams competed each other in a round-robin format. The top two teams contested the final. This format continued till 2019-20.
The tournament was not held till 2022 due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, the tournament returned with the original zonal format. A knock-out system was yet again implemented. Furthermore, North East Zone was a new team added along with the five original zones.
With 2545 runs to his name, Wasim Jaffer remains the tournament’s leading run-getter. Narendra Hirwani, who played in this event between 1987 to 2004, remains the leading wicket-taker of the event (126 wickets).
