Duleep Trophy

The Duleep Trophy is a domestic first-class cricket competition played in India between teams representing geographical zones of India. The competition is named after Kumar Shri Duleepsinhji (also known as "Duleep").

History

The competition was started by the Board of Control for Cricket in India in the 1961-62 season. The inaugural tournament was won by West Zone who defeated South Zone in the final by 10 wickets. In the 1962-63 season four of the five teams (all except Central Zone) had their bowling attacks strengthened by a West Indies Test cricketer.

North Zone have been the most successful team with 17 wins (including one shared trophy).

Format

Five Indian zonal teams regularly take part in the Duleep Trophy - North Zone, South Zone, East Zone, West Zone and Central Zone.

The original format was that the five teams played each other on a knock-out basis. From the 1993-94 season, the competition converted to a league format.

For the 2002-03 season, the zonal teams were replaced by 5 new teams - Elite A, Elite B, Elite C, Plate A and Plate B. These teams were constructed from the new Elite Group and Plate Group divisions which had been introduced into the Ranji Trophy that season. However, this format lasted for only one season as it was felt that the new teams lacked a sense of identity.

From the 2003-04 season onwards, the five original zonal teams competed along with a sixth guest team which was a touring foreign team. The first guest team was England A in 2003-04.

Composition of teams

Each zonal team is a composite team of cricketers who play for the Ranji Trophy state/city teams situated in that region of India. The teams which compose each zone are as follows:

North Zone

South Zone

Central Zone

East Zone

West Zone

Guest teams

From the 2003-04 season onwards, a guest team has competed as a sixth team in the Duleep Trophy.

Season	Guest Team
2003-04	England A
2004-05	Bangladesh
2005-06	Zimbabwe Cricket Union President's XI
2006-07	Sri Lanka A
2007-08	England Lions

Past winners

Season	Winner
1961-62	West Zone
1962-63	West Zone
1963-64	West Zone & South Zone (shared)
1964-65	West Zone
1965-66	South Zone
1966-67	South Zone
1967-68	South Zone
1968-69	West Zone
1969-70	West Zone
1970-71	South Zone
1971-72	Central Zone
1972-73	West Zone
1973-74	North Zone
1974-75	South Zone
1975-76	South Zone
1976-77	West Zone
1977-78	West Zone
1978-79	North Zone
1979-80	North Zone
1980-81	West Zone
1981-82	West Zone
1982-83	North Zone
1983-84	North Zone
1984-85	South Zone
1985-86	West Zone
1986-87	South Zone
1987-88	North Zone
1988-89	North Zone & West Zone (shared)
1989-90	South Zone
1990-91	North Zone
1991-92	North Zone
1992-93	North Zone
1993-94	North Zone
1994-95	North Zone
1995-96	South Zone
1996-97	Central Zone
1997-98	Central Zone & West Zone (shared)
1998-99	Central Zone
1999-00	North Zone
2000-01	North Zone
2001-02	West Zone
2002-03	Elite C
2003-04	North Zone
2004-05	Central Zone
2005-06	West Zone
2006-07	North Zone
2007-08	North Zone

References

External links

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Last updated on Wednesday June 11, 2008 at 11:02:05 PDT (GMT -0700)
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