War of CricketCricket in India
India is the financial and competitive centre of world cricket. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is the sport's wealthiest governing body, its Indian Premier League is the richest domestic competition in the game, and the national team has added the 2011 One Day World Cup and the 2024 T20 World Cup to the 1983 title this page originally described.
Early history
The British brought cricket to India in the early 18th century; the first recorded match was played in 1721. In 1848, Mumbai's Parsi community formed the Oriental Cricket Club, the first cricket club established by Indians, and by the 1890s the Bombay Triangular (later Quadrangular) tournament between the city's religious communities was under way. India played its first official Test against England at Lord's in 1932. Domestic cricket followed soon after: the Ranji Trophy, first-class cricket's national championship, was proposed by BCCI co-founder Anthony de Mello at a board meeting in Shimla in July 1934, with the Maharaja of Patiala donating the trophy and suggesting it be named for Ranjitsinhji, the first Indian to play international cricket. The opening match was played on 4 November 1934.
World Cup history
India's breakthrough came in 1983, when Kapil Dev's side beat the West Indies by 43 runs in the World Cup final at Lord's, still regarded as the moment that made cricket a mass sport in India. A second 50-over title followed on home soil: on 2 April 2011, India beat Sri Lanka by six wickets at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, with captain MS Dhoni finishing the match with a six and taking the player of the match award. India had already won the inaugural T20 World Cup in 2007 under Dhoni, and added a second T20 title on 29 June 2024, beating South Africa by seven runs in Barbados with Virat Kohli named player of the match — the game after which Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja all retired from T20 internationals.
Domestic structure
| Competition | Format | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Ranji Trophy | First-class | Founded 1934–35; 38 teams in 2025–26. Mumbai have won it 42 times; Jammu and Kashmir won their maiden title in 2025–26. |
| Duleep Trophy | First-class (zonal) | Started 1961–62 to sharpen competition between India's cricket zones. |
| Irani Cup | First-class | Ranji champions vs Rest of India. |
| Vijay Hazare Trophy | List A (50 overs) | State one-day championship. |
| Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy | Twenty20 | State T20 championship. |
The IPL and the BCCI's finances
Founded by the BCCI in 2007 and first played in 2008, the Indian Premier League is now the world's second-richest sports league by per-match value, behind only the NFL. Its 2023–2027 domestic media rights deal was worth around US$6.2 billion, and the tournament regularly draws hundreds of millions of viewers across a season. Royal Challengers Bengaluru won their first title in 2025, after 18 seasons without one, then won again in 2026 to beat Gujarat Titans in the final. The BCCI's dominance shows up off the field too: it is the wealthiest cricket board in the world, with annual revenue exceeding US$1 billion, largely generated by the IPL, and in December 2024 its former secretary, Jay Shah, became chairman of the ICC itself — the clearest sign yet of where power in the sport now sits. A women's IPL, the Women's Premier League, began in 2023.
The national team today
India reached the World Test Championship final in both 2021 and 2023, losing to New Zealand and Australia respectively, and remain ranked among the top sides in all three formats. That depth was built by generations of players stretching back decades — Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble among them — through to the generation of Dhoni, Kohli and Rohit Sharma that delivered the 2011 and 2024 world titles.