India is home to a very large cricketing landscape. The sport has an enormous fan base in this region. And the number of young people taking it up as a career is huge, which is a strong proof of the fan following.
Playing for India, the top-most or the perfect place for cricket in the country, one has to first work hard in the domestic circuit. They play in the top BCCI domestic tournaments as well as the most visible ones, which are basically the routes through which they get to the national selectors.
Out of the many tournaments, there is one which is responsible for not just one but two openings. The first one is the Indian team, and secondly, who wouldn’t want to have an IPL deal!
You might be curious to know which trophy we are discussing. It’s none other than the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. It’s a domestic T20 competition in India.
In this article, we will take a look at the history of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and its champions.
Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy: History
You might already know that the IPL was launched in 2008. The Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) however started the year before that.
The new T20 tournament, later renamed the Inter-State Twenty-20 Tournament, was organized by BCCI as a trial play in April 2007. In the end, Tamil Nadu turned out as winners of the first season as they beat Punjab in the final with two wickets remaining.
After the first season, the governing body took a break from the T20 tournament for two years. Meanwhile, the BCCI started the IPL making it an instant hit among the Indian audience.
The IPL has been a great platform for many Indian and international stars to display their talent and justify their huge price tags. Still, there were not many local Indian players who managed to get chances in the money-spinning league.
The board came to a decision and formally labelled the tournament after the Indian cricketer Syed Mushtaq Ali. Since then, the BCCI has organized the SMAT each year with the participation of multiple state teams.
Who is Syed Mushtaq Ali?
Syed Mushtaq Ali was an Indian cricketer, who played for the country even before the British rule came to an end. In fact, he was the first Indian batsman to score a century in the Test match at the overseas venue in 1936.
Mushtaq Ali had a brief Test career, during which he played in 11 matches, scored 612 runs, and got two hundreds. But he was a hero in first-class cricket, scoring a whopping total of 13213 runs and taking 162 wickets with his left-arm spin.
The right-handed batter was also a part of India’s first-ever Test match victory in 1952. However, that match turned out to be his last Test appearance too.
What is the format of the Syed Mushtaq Trophy, and how many teams are there?
In the tournament before the season of 2017, 27 teams were there, but now it has grown to a total of 38 teams in the SMAT.
These teams are divided into five groups and play against each other once in the round-robin format to win the trophy. You can find SMAT’s format and participant teams here.
Which team is the most successful in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy?
Tamil Nadu, the first champions, is the most successful team ever in the history of SMAT. The team of the South Indian state has claimed the T20 tournament title on three occasions.
Below is the list of winners of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy for each season.
Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy Winners list
| Season | Winners | Runners-up |
|---|---|---|
| 2006/07 | Tamil Nadu | Punjab |
| 2009/10 | Maharashtra | Hyderabad |
| 2010/11 | Bengal | Madhya Pradesh |
| 2011/12 | Baroda | Punjab |
| 2012/13 | Gujarat | Punjab |
| 2013/14 | Baroda | Uttar Pradesh |
| 2014/15 | Gujarat | Punjab |
| 2015/16 | Uttar Pradesh | Baroda |
| 2016/17 | East Zone | Central Zone |
| 2017/18 | Delhi | Rajasthan |
| 2018/19 | Karnataka | Maharashtra |
| 2019/20 | Karnataka | Tamil Nadu |
| 2020/21 | Tamil Nadu | Baroda |
| 2021/22 | Tamil Nadu | Karnataka |
| 2022/23 | Mumbai | Himachal Pradesh |
| 2023/24 | Punjab | Baroda |
| 2024/25 | Mumbai | Madhya Pradesh |
