Which Team has Won the Ranji Trophy the Most Times

What is Ranji Trophy

The Ranji Trophy is India’s premier domestic first-class cricket competition and one of the world’s most prestigious first-class tournaments where 38 teams from India compete to win the coveted title. It is organized each year by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Each of the 28 states has at least one representative team with 4 union territories and government organizations such as Railways and Services having a team of their own.

Ranji Trophy winner team – Most time

The Mumbai Ranji team is the most successful side in the history of the tournament with 41 titles to date. Formerly known as Bombay, the team won the first two Ranji seasons and has also won 15 consecutive trophies from 1955-56 to 1972-73. The team last won the tournament back in 2015-16 and since has ended up as runner-ups in 2016-17 and 2021-22.

The team has competed in 46 finals out of the 86 played overall. The next successful team is Karnataka which was also known as Mysore in the early years of the tournament. The Karnataka/Mysore side has lifted the trophy on 8 occasions and last won the cup in 2015.

The Mumbai side has certainly been the most dominant side over the years. There was a time when making it to the Indian Test side was deemed easier than making it in the Mumbai playing XI. It was such a strong unit.

The Mumbai side also produced numerous Test cricketers over the years for India. There was a time when half of the Indian side comprised of Mumbai players. 76 out of a total of 308 Indian Test cricketers hail from Mumbai.

The local cricket structure is believed to be one of the best and most passionate ones in the whole country. The players are trained to play with a certain kind of attitude from a tender age in a competitive environment. The same attitude grows and becomes what is known as the khadoos attitude on the field in big competitions.

The Mumbai side is known to produce world-class batters and has produced world-beating talents such as Vijay Merchant, Vijay Manjrekar, Polly Umrigar, Ajit Wadekar, Nari Contractor, Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip Vengsarkar, Sachin Tendulkar and in the modern age players like Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma who are the batting mainstays of the Indian Test side.

Ranji Trophy Records

The Mumbai team holds the record for the most number of titles and it is indeed a Mumbai batter who leads the run-scoring charts of the Ranji Trophy. The top 2 spots in fact have been occupied by Mumbai stalwarts Wasim Jaffer and Amol Muzumdar respectively.

Punjab spinner Rajinder Goel has the most number of wickets in the Ranji Trophy history but sadly he could never play a single Test match for the country due to severe competition in the 60s and 70s. S. Venkataraghavan is second in the list with Vinay Kumar the most successful fast bowler in the Ranji Trophy history.

Ranji Trophy Format

The current format comprises an Elite Group and a Plate Group. 32 teams comprise the elite group and the remaining 6 teams take part in the plate group. The elite teams are then subdivided into 4 different groups. The top 2 teams from each sub-division qualify for the quarter-final stage. In the plate group, the top 4 teams qualify for the plate group knockouts and the bottom two sides play each other for 5th place. The top 2 teams are promoted to the Elite group in the next season with the 2 teams with the least number of points in the elite stage being relegated to the plate group.

Ranji Trophy – How it Started

The Indian board had a meeting in Shimla in July 1934 where it was decided that a first-class competition would be launched. It was initially named as ‘The Cricket Championship of India’ but was later named after the first Indian to play international cricket – KS Ranjitsinhji who played for England.

The first season was played in 1934-35 with a total of 15 participants. The first match was played between Madras and Mysore. Bombay won the inaugural tournament which was known as ‘The Cricket Championship of India’. The tournament was rechristened as the Ranji Trophy in 1935-36.

Ranji Trophy over the years

At the beginning of the tournament, teams were distributed in different regional groups: North, South, East and West. The teams would play knockout games amongst each other and then the zonal winners would play another knockout competition to determine the champion side.

The Central Zone joined the party in 1952-53 and since 1957-58, the knockout format was changed to league fixtures amongst zonal teams. Since 1970-71, top 2 teams from each zone qualified for the knockouts. The number increased to the top 3 in the 1992-93 season.

In 2002-03, the zonal format was scrapped and a divisional structure was adopted. The Elite group comprised of fifteen teams and the plate group had the remaining teams. The 2023-24 season also has a similar format with 32 teams divided into four elite groups and the plate group comprising six teams. The top 2 teams in the plate division are promoted to the elite group in the next season with the bottom 2 teams in the elite division getting relegated for the next Ranji season.