India, the country where cricket is a passion, possesses a giant domestic cricket structure. From tournaments of senior cricketers to junior competitions, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) establishes national-level competitions for all formats throughout the country.
The list includes Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy, Vijay Hazare Trophy, Cooch Behar Trophy, and many other tournaments in different parts of the country. Among these is a specific trophy that involves a one-off match between two teams.
Which trophy? – The Irani Cup.
Now, what exactly is the Irani Cup? What prompts its playing? What are the circumstances surrounding its history?
Let’s take a glance at the short history of the Irani Cup. Why don’t we?
Irani Cup – History
The BCCI initiated the Ranji Trophy – the foremost First-Class contests of India-in November 1934. By the time of 1959-60 season, the prime tournament of red-ball cricket has reached its 25th year.
Consequently, the governing body chose to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Ranji Trophy by arranging a one-off match between 2 teams at the end of the season.
Read Also:- What is First-class cricket? Know origin & history of the oldest format of cricket
The two teams were Bombay (now Mumbai) – the winner of the Ranji Trophy for that season and the Rest of India. The squad of Rest of India was selected from various state Ranji teams with Nari Contractor as the skipper. Polly Umrigar was the captain of the Bombay Ranji team.
Bombay clinched the Ranji Trophy by defeating Mysore in the final match by an innings and 22 runs. In five days, they were competing with the Rest of India team for the one-off Irani Cup match.
The First-Class match lasted for three days and was drawn eventually. Since the Bombay team had the upper hand in terms of innings they took the Irani Cup.
At that time, the BCCI had set up the match as a special occasion to celebrate 25 years of the Ranji Trophy’s existence. Thus, they did not keep this fixture going for the next two years.
However, in the 1962-63 season, the BCCI took a drastic step and made it a regular part of the Indian domestic cricket ecosystem. For the 1959-60, 1962-63, and 1963-64 seasons, the events happened at the end of the season.
The period of 1965-66 to 2012-13 seasons, on the other hand, the Irani Cup indicated the start of the new season. The fixture was then moved to the beginning and end of the seasons in 2013 for several reasons.
But the question is, what made the fixture be called the Irani Cup?
To whom is the Irani Cup named after? The illustrious Irani Cup gets its name from Zal Irani, the man who was a prominent figure in the BCCI and whose name is still fresh in the minds of the people.
He was the treasurer of BCCI in two periods: first from 1928, when the board was established, till 1945-46 and next from 1948-49 to 1961-62. In 1966, Irani became the BCCI’s president, which was a position he held from 1966 till 1969.
When the first Irani Cup match was held in the 1959-60 season, Irani was the treasurer of the BCCI. Moreover, the trophy for that match was given by Messrs Spencers Ltd, the owners of a shopping mall in Chennai.
What is more, Irani was then also the Chairman and Managing Director of Messrs Spencers Ltd. So paralleling the trophy after Zal Irani was quite justifiable as he had much to do with cricket administration in India and had rendered this quality service.
The teams playing the Irani Cup are??
The Irani Cup is a unique First-Class match played between two teams. The first team, the Rest of India, is the major player and the best players from various state Ranji teams are selected for the current season.
The other team consists of the Ranji Trophy champion of that season, where 38 teams participate. In the 5-day confrontation, the Ranji Trophy winners and the Rest of India team compete, with the winner taking the Irani Cup.
Which team has won the Irani Cup the most times?
The Rest of India team has emerged as the victor of the Irani Cup the most times, with more than 30 inscriptions of their name on the trophy. The Ranji team of Mumbai follows, with 15 Irani Cup victories.
