The Vijay Hazare Trophy is the one-day version of the Ranji Trophy. The tournament was initiated in the 2002-03 season with all the teams that play in the premier first class championship of India. The tournament has been named after Vijay Hazare, one of the leading Indian cricketers of all time.
Format of the tournament
To start with, the format of the tournament is much different from the Ranji Trophy as it is played nowadays – in fact, it can be said that it bears resemblance to the way Ranji Trophy was played previously. The 27 competing teams here are divided into 5 zones – Central, East, North, South and West.
The Central Zone comprises Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Railways, Vidarbha and Rajasthan. In the East Zone, one will see Assam, Odisha, Bengal, Tripura and Jharkhand competing for the next level. The North Zone is made up of Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Services. In the South Zone, the fight is between Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Goa, Kerala, Hyderabad and Tamil Nadu. The West Zone is made up of Baroda, Mumbai, Gujarat, Saurashtra and Maharashtra.
Once the group league is completed the 5 winners and the best runner up among the 5 zones are promoted to the next level, which is the quarterfinal. The four remaining runners up are then expected to play two preliminary quarterfinal matches in order to earn the 2 remaining spots for the main quarterfinals.
Tournament history
Tamil Nadu holds the distinction of winning the first ever edition of the Vijay Hazare Trophy. It has also won the tournament the maximum number of times – 3 solo wins (2003-04, 2008-09 and 2009-10) and 1 shared win with Uttar Pradesh in 2004-05. Next on the list is Mumbai, which has landed the trophy twice, once each in 2003-04 and 2006-07.
Saurashtra has won the trophy in 2007-08 and Jharkhand won the trophy in 2010-11. Bengal won it in the 2011-12 season. Delhi is the current winner having defeated Assam in the final.
Debate over format
Recently there were some calls from captains and coaches of domestic cricket that the Vijay Hazare Trophy should be played in the way the Ranji Trophy is played. However, former leg spinner and present chairman of the technical committee of the BCCI, Anil Kumble, has stated it might not be possible owing to logistical problems and, as of now, the tournament will be played in the format in which it is being played.
