The annual cricket tournament played in Bombay was the principal organised cricket of pre-independence India. It began in the 1890s as a Parsi-vs-European fixture, became a Triangular when the Hindus joined in 1907, and was extended into a Quadrangular when a Muslim side was admitted. Through the 1900s it was the most-watched cricket in the subcontinent and the platform on which a generation of Indian cricketers earned the right to be considered for Test cricket once India was admitted to the ICC.
Cricket had been played in India since the late 18th century, but until the 1890s most of it was European. The growth of native participation — Parsi first, then Hindu, then Muslim — gradually produced an Indian first-class standard.
The Parsis had been the first Indian community to take up European cricket competitively, fielding a team that toured England in 1886 and 1888, and by the late 1890s the annual Parsi-European fixture in Bombay was a fixture of the city's calendar. In 1907 the Hindus joined as a third side, making the contest a Triangular; the matches were played on rough Bombay maidans with grandstands erected for the better-off spectators and large standing crowds drawn from the communities. The Hindu side of the 1900s included Palwankar Baloo, the left-arm spinner from a Dalit family, whose presence in elite cricket carried a social significance that was understood at the time. The tournament's expansion into a Quadrangular followed the Muslim community's request to be admitted, completing the four-team format that ran for the next several decades.
1890s: Annual Parsi vs European matches in Bombay
1907: Hindus admitted; tournament becomes a Triangular
Through the 1900s: Palwankar Baloo emerges as the leading Hindu spinner
Later: Muslims admitted; format becomes Quadrangular
1890s
Annual Parsi-European fixture established in Bombay
1907
Hindus admitted; Triangular format begins
1945-46
Tournament abolished after political pressure
The Quadrangular and its later Pentangular form ran annually until 1945-46, when the tournament was abolished after Mahatma Gandhi and others argued that communal sport reinforced communal identity.
The institutional spine of pre-independence Indian cricket: the tournament that taught Indian players first-class standards and the platform from which the country's eventual Test admission was negotiated.
Many founding figures of Indian Test cricket — C.K. Nayudu, Vijay Hazare, Lala Amarnath, Vinoo Mankad — emerged through the Quadrangular system. Palwankar Baloo's pioneering role as a Dalit cricketer in elite matches is now central to histories of Indian cricket and of caste politics.
Yorkshire v Essex
1932-06-16
On 15-16 June 1932 Herbert Sutcliffe (313) and Percy Holmes (224*) put on 555 for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton, breaking the world first-class record for any wicket and adding a layer of folklore — including a scoreboard that read 554 for several minutes and a hastily reversed declaration — that has clung to the partnership ever since.
Australia v England
1933-02-14
With the fate of the Bodyline series in the balance and England 216 for 6 chasing 340, Eddie Paynter checked himself out of a Brisbane hospital where he was being treated for acute tonsillitis, taxied to the Gabba in pyjamas and a dressing gown, and batted for nearly four hours to score 83. England drew level on first innings, won the Test by six wickets and the series 4-1.
Australia
1934-09-25
Days after the 1934 Oval Test, Bradman fell seriously ill with appendicitis that progressed to peritonitis. With antibiotics not yet available, he was given little chance of survival; his wife Jessie left Adelaide on a sea voyage to England prepared for the worst. He recovered after weeks of intensive nursing in a London nursing home and returned to first-class cricket the following Australian summer.