In the first year after its foundation the Board of Control for Cricket in India began discussions on a national first-class competition modelled on the County Championship and Sheffield Shield. The Ranji Trophy was eventually launched in 1934-35, but its founding deliberations began in mid-1929 with the BCCI's first executive meeting.
Indian first-class cricket in the 1920s was organised through the Bombay Quadrangular (later Pentangular) and the Lahore Tournament, both on community/religious lines. The BCCI's founding objective was a national competition organised on regional lines and structured for the new Test era.
The BCCI was founded in December 1928. Its initial priorities were Test status (achieved in May 1929) and a national first-class competition. The discussions through 1929 focused on the structure: a four-zone format (West, North, East, South) on the model of the Bombay Quadrangular but on a regional rather than communal basis, with the leading provincial sides competing for a national trophy.
The Maharaja of Patiala, Bhupinder Singh, offered to fund the trophy, which would be named after K.S. Ranjitsinhji (recently deceased and India's most famous cricketer). The Maharaja of Vizianagram (Vizzy) supported the proposal. The competition was approved at the BCCI's annual meeting in 1934 and the inaugural Ranji Trophy played in 1934-35, with Bombay winning the first final by an innings against Northern India at Bombay.
The 1929 discussions established the framework — the regional zones, the patronage by the princely states, the trophy named after Ranji — that has structured Indian first-class cricket for nearly a century.
Dec 1928: BCCI founded
Mar 1929: BCCI first annual meeting; first-class competition discussed
May 1929: India admitted to ICC
Aug 1929: Maharaja of Patiala offers trophy
1934: Competition approved; Ranji Trophy launched 1934-35
Dec 1928
BCCI founded
1929
First-class competition discussions begin
1934
Ranji Trophy approved
1934-35
Inaugural Ranji Trophy season
“We must have a national tournament that is Indian rather than communal. The new India deserves a new cricket structure.”
The Ranji Trophy was launched in 1934-35 with Bombay winning the inaugural final. The competition has been India's premier first-class tournament ever since, expanding from four zones to fifteen and now twenty-eight teams. The Duleep Trophy (inter-zonal) and Irani Trophy (champion v Rest of India) followed in the 1960s.
The 1929 discussions on a national first-class competition were the founding administrative work of the Ranji Trophy and the structural blueprint of organised Indian cricket since.
The 1929 BCCI discussions are the founding moment of the Ranji Trophy and of organised Indian first-class cricket. The competition has produced almost every Indian Test cricketer since 1934-35.
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.