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Cricket History in India

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Cricket in History

Cricket remains India's most popular and successful sport, with millions of people watching it on television, attending local matches, or participating in it every year.

Cricket is not only a popular sport in India, but it is also an important part of the country's history.

It plays an important role in bringing people together both internationally and domestically. 

With increased television coverage, tournaments, and in-play cricket betting, the history of cricket in India is fascinating to explore, if only to observe how far the game has advanced.

Cricket, which was invented by the English in the 16th century, was gradually brought to India, which was a big part of the British Empire until 1947 when it was granted independence.

Despite the fact that hockey is India's national sport, people appreciate and enjoy the game of cricket.

The first mention of the sport in India dates back to 1721 when English sailors from the East India Company played a game in Kutch.

Indian Cricket Team Achievements

 World Cup

Winners

1983, 2011

Runners-up

2003

 T20 World Cup

Winners

2007

Runners-up

2014

Winners

2002, 2013

Runners-up

2000, 2017

Runners-up : 2019–2021

The Calcutta Cricket and Football Club (CCFC)

The Calcutta Cricket and football club were formed in 1792, and another cricket club was formed in 1799 at Seringapatam in South India.

On March 3, 1845, Sepoy cricketers participated against European cricketers in the city of Sylhet (now in Bangladesh).

The Parsee Oriental Cricket Club was formed in 1848, and the first match was held in Bombay (Mumbai).

The first-class cricket season began in 1864, with a match between the Madras and Calcutta teams.

The Bombay Triangular, and  the Bombay Quadrangular 

The Bombay Presidency Matches were held in 1877. That was later dubbed the Bombay Triangular, and then the Bombay Quadrangular

Bombay Pentangular 

The name was changed to Bombay Pentangular Matches in 1937-38. 

Between the 26th and 28th of January 1893, four First-Class matches were played between an English team led by Lord Hawke and an All India team.

In 1911, Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of Patiala led an All-India team on a tour of England.

In terms of international cricket, the team has been active since October 1926. A team from the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) led by A.E.R Gilligan toured India that year.

Despite the fact that it was a casual tour, the Indian people were fascinated and enthralled by the matches that MCC played during the tour.

BCCI Formation

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), based in Mumbai, is India's governing body for all cricket.

Calcutta Cricket Club was re-established by the BCCI in December 1928. R.E. Grant Govan was the first president of The BCCI when it was founded in 1928.

Sourav Ganguly a vetran cricketar is the current president of the BCCI, and Jay Shah who even did not hold the bat is the Secretary.

Just before the Ranji Trophy begins, the BCCI has organized a 12-team inter-community tournament.

The tournament is a 50-over-a-side tournament and inter state level where all qualified states compete for Ranji Trophy..

About Indian Cricket History

The Indian cricket team debuted in Test cricket in 1932 and has since risen to be one of the top four test teams in the (ICC rankings) from 2005 to 2008.

In 1983 and 2011, the team won the ODI Cricket World Cup. In addition to the Twenty20 World Cup in 2007, Team India also won the ICC Champions Trophy in 2002 and 2013.

European merchant sailors introduced cricket to India in the 18th century, and the first cricket club was founded in 1792.

The national cricket team of India did not play its first Test match until June 25, 1932, at Lord's, becoming the sixth team to be granted Test cricket status.

Under the good captaincy of Kapil Dev Nikhanj, India claimed (won) its first World Cup in 1983.

Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid, and Kumble, all considered to be among the greatest Indian players, made their debuts in the 1980s and 1990s.

1932

Indian_Test_Cricket_team_1932

India had to wait more than 20 years for its first Test victory, from 1932 to 1952.

Throughout the first fifty years of international cricket, India was one of the weakest teams, winning only 35 of the 196 Test matches it played.

The team, on the other hand, flourished in the 1970s, thanks to players like Gavaskar, Viswanath, Kapil Dev, and the Indian spin quartet.

Ganguly's captaincy is regarded as the turning point in Indian cricket, as it saw great success and became one of the sport's dominant sides.

It was followed by MS Dhoni's superb captaincy, under which India won its second World Cup in 2011, the inaugural T20 World Cup in 2007, and the Champions Trophy in 2013.

Currently, Rohit Sharma captains all three formats – Test, ODI, and T20I.

1915 and 1937

While India was under British rule, a few Indians, like Ranjitsinhji and KS Duleepsinhji, played for the English cricket team.

Before we get into the history of Indian cricket, it's crucial to understand who is behind this remarkable past.

Sir Bhupinder Singh or Bhuppa, the Maharaja of Patiala, is well known for his grandeur and as a cricketer.

His cricket teams, Patiala XI, are among India's best. He was a huge supporter of sports. 

The Maharaja of Patiala is the guy responsible for Indian cricket's glorious history.

He used his own money to finance many cricket tours and championships in India.

Between 1915 and 1937, he was the captain of the Indian cricket team that visited England in 1911, and he played in 27 first-class cricket matches.

1926-27

Sir Bhupinder Singh was a member of Marylebone Cricket Club for the 1926/27 season.

He donated the Ranji Trophy in honor of Kumar Shri Ranjit Singhji, Jam Sahib of Nawanagar.

He was named India's captain for the inaugural Test tour of England in 1932, but he dropped out two weeks before departure due to illness, and the Maharaja of Porbandar took over.

India became the sixth International team that has been granted test cricket status.

India made their Test-cricket debut in England in 1932, captained by CK Nayudu, long before the country gained independence.

The team did well in the match against England, with Mohammad Nissar taking 5-93 and 1-42.

Despite the fact that the match was just 3 days long, it was accorded test status.

England scored 258 in their first innings, with Nissar taking good care of the openers and four runners.

The Indian squad, on the other hand, failed to pick up from their bowling performance, being dismissed for 189 runs, with CK Nayudu leading the way with 40 runs.

England went on to score 275 runs and set India a target of 346 runs which seemed out of reach for the Indians.

India was all out for 187 runs and lost by 158 runs

1948

In 1948, the team played Australia in its maiden series as an independent country in Brisbane.

Sir Don Bradman was captain of the Australian team, while Lala Amarnath was captain of the Indian team.

Australia returned home with a 4–0 victory in the five-matches Test series..

1952

In 1952, India won its first Test match against England in Madras.

Later that year, India won its first series against Pakistan. In 1954, India and Pakistan drew a 5-Test series 0–0.

India's batting power came from Polly Umrigar and Vijay Manjrekar, while the series' top bowler was Subhash Gupte, who took 21 wickets.

1956

In 1956, India's debut series against New Zealand resulted in a sweeping series victory, with India winning all five Tests 2–0.

MH Mankad batted brilliantly throughout the series, averaging 105.2 and scoring 526 runs.

With 34 wickets, S.M. Gupte once again held India's bowling together.

The rest of the 1950s did not go as well as the first: India lost a three-match series to Australia (2-0), and a five-match series to the West Indies (3-0),

1960s

In the 1960s, the team's performance began to improve once more, beginning with their first series victory over England in 1961–62.

During this time, India began to establish a solid home record, winning a series against New Zealand in 1965-66 and drawing series against Pakistan, Australia, and England.

India defeated New Zealand in their first series outside of the subcontinent in 1967–68.

1970-73

Sunil Gavaskar made his debut for India in the West Indies in 1970-71, scoring 774 runs in the series and helping India to a 1–0 series win, their first-ever victory over the West Indies.

Gavaskar, along with established players like BishenBedi, Srinivas Venkataraghavan, Erapalli Prasanna, and Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, formed the nucleus of what was arguably India's strongest Test team at the time.

India's victory over the West Indies was followed by victories over England at home and away in 1971 and 1972–73.

1980s

Other players such as Mohammed Azharuddin, Ravi Shastri, Laxman Sivaramakrishnan, Sanjay Manjrekar, Krish Srikkanth, and Maninder Singh emerged in the 1980s.

1983 

World Cup 1983 trophy

When we talk about Indian Cricket Golden past or history, first name comes in our mind about World Cup 1983 tournament.

In 1983, India won the Cricket World Cup, defeating the West Indies in an exciting final.

1985-86

India won the World Cricket Championship in Australia in 1985.

For nearly 19 years, the 1986 Test series triumph in England was the only Test series success outside of the subcontinent.

Sunil Gavaskar was the first batsman in Test cricket to reach 10,000 runs, and he went on to score 34 hundred, a record only recently broken by Sachin Tendulkar.

Kapil Dev, a true all-rounder, beat Richard Hadlee to become the best wicket-taker in Test cricket, with 434 wickets.

This record that has since been broken by Courtney Walsh, Shane Warne, and Muttiah Muralitharan, as well as fellow Indian Anil Kumble.

1989-90 

In 1989 and 1990, the emergence of Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble marked the beginning of an era of Indian cricket defined by stars and individual prowess.

Along with Brian Lara of the West Indies, Sachin Tendulkar became perhaps the best batsman in the world, and Sir Donald Bradman himself noted in 1998 that Tendulkar's batting approach was identical to his.

Mohammed Azharuddin, who led India for the majority of the 1990s, was a captain whose biggest strength, aside from his motivational abilities, was his ability to remain calm under pressure.

Azharuddin's creative batting, on the other hand, deteriorated in the latter years of his captaincy, with his best innings coming primarily at home.

After 99 Tests, the Hyderabadi stylist's career was cut short when he was banned for life after being accused of being involved in the match-fixing scandal.

Under his leadership, the Indian team became virtually unbeatable at home, with big wins over teams like England, Sri Lanka, South Africa, and Australia.

Their performances abroad, on the other hand, left much to be desired.

1999

The Indian team was in chaos by the end of 1999.

Despite their strong performance in the 1999 World Cup, the winter was tarnished by a disastrous tour to Australia.

It exposed the Indian team's weaknesses when playing abroad, as well as a loss of form for most of the batsmen, apart from Tendulkar and the newly emerged VVS Laxman.

Sourav Ganguly was replaced over as captain after Tendulkar stepped down and Azharuddin was banned for match-fixing, while New Zealander John Wright was appointed coach.

2001

Sourav Ganguly's captaincy marked the beginning of a new era in Indian cricket.

It all started with the famous series against Australia in 2001 when Steve Waugh's strong team was defeated 2–1 in a Test series after taking a 1–0 lead in Mumbai.

The series is best remembered for the Indian team's remarkable turnaround in the Kolkata Test, when VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid, and Harbhajan Singh's performances led India to victory after they had trailed.

This series was a watershed moment in the Indian team's windfalls, giving them the much-needed boost.

This was followed by outstanding performances by the team when playing abroad, with Test victories in Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, the West Indies, England, and Australia, as well as a famous series victory over arch-rival Pakistan in 2004.

2002 

The 2002 series in England is known as Rahul Dravid's series.

He became the Indians' leading scorer, with centuries at Trent Bridge in Nottingham, Headingley in Leeds, and a famous 217 at The Oval in London.

2003 

In the 2003 Cricket World Cup final, India finished second to Australia.

Since 2004, India's performance in One-Day Internationals has dropped.

Players like Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, and Anil Kumble, who led India to great heights in the last 10 years, grew older and lost their form and fitness.

This was followed by a sensational win in Australia in Adelaide in 2003.

Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, and Ajit Agarkar led the team to a come-from-behind victory after conceding 556 runs in the first innings.

Following the series win in Pakistan, Virender Sehwag became the first Indian to score a triple century in Test cricket.

Along with Sehwag, players such as Yuvraj Singh and Mohammed Kaif emerged, establishing India's batting order as one of the strongest in the world in both forms of the game.

Their performances helped reduce India's reliance on their top players in one-day cricket, and a seven-batsman policy contributed to India's limited-overs success, culminating in their reaching the final of the 2003 Cricket World Cup.

In the bowling division, India discovered a slew of fast-bowling talent, led by Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, and later Irfan Pathan and L Balaji.

India has a very good record against Australia, having never been defeated by Australia in a Test Series in India before the 2004/05 tour.

This is why Australian captain Steve Waugh referred to India as the "Final Frontier."

Harbhajan Singh became the first Indian to take a Test hat-trick during the famous 2001 Australian tour of India, and the team went on to beat Australia 2–1.

2005 : Greg Chappel became coach of Indian Team

Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, and Virender Sehwag were selected to play for the ICC World XI against Australia in the 2005 "SuperTest."

Indian cricket was once again surrounded by controversy in 2005.

Following the completion of the famous Pakistan series, the coaching task was passed from John Wright to the Australian Greg Chappell after a somewhat slow season marked by a drop in team performance.

Saurav Ganguly, whose batting form had continued to suffer that year, had a dispute with Chappell about whether he should continue as captain to relieve pressure on him.

Ganguly was then dropped from the team, and Rahul Dravid took over as captain.

However, Indian pace bowling has improved in recent years, with emerging talents such as Irfan Pathan, Munaf Patel, and Sreesanth, among others, playing for the national team.

India, on the other hand, has always struggled with pace, with Zaheer Khan being the only notable pace bowler to appear.

Following the series loss to Australia, India failed on the penultimate day of the Third Test against Pakistan in Bangalore in early 2005, squandering a series victory.

Then lost four consecutive One-Day Internationals against Pakistan. This was worsened by skipper Ganguly's punishment for slow over-rates.

Following the series, Greg Chappell took over as the new coach of the Indian cricket team, succeeding John Wright, and replaced Kumble and V.V.S. Laxman on the ODI team with younger players.

India's unconvincing ODI form continued, with the team scraping past a West Indian team depleted by industrial action in the 2005 Indian Oil Cup.

A similarly severely weakened Zimbabwean team in the finals, only to be defeated twice by New Zealand, continuing a poor ODI finals record.

2006 

Anil Kumble surpassed Kapil Dev to become India's all-time leading wicket-taker, and he also passed the 500-wicket mark in March 2006.

His bowling performances abroad improved significantly, and he played an important role in India's performances in England, Australia, and Pakistan.

Harbhajan Singh kept him company in the spin department, and the two bowling in tandem became a familiar sight at home.

Leak of a Confidential Email

The tension resulted in a fallout between Chappell and Ganguly, which resulted in the leak of a confidential email sent by Chappell to the BCCI.

Through email Chappell condemned Ganguly's leadership and performance.

Rahul Dravid was placed as captain after a series of high-profile board meetings and public jousting involving some players, sparking a revival in the team's successes.

In a subsequent home series, the Indians defeated Sri Lanka 6–1.

The discovery of the team's young talent, including Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Gautam Gambhir, and Irfan Pathan, was an important part of this series.

The team also defeated Sri Lanka 2-0 in the Test series, knocking England out of second place in the ICC Test rankings, but India fell back by losing the high-profile series to Pakistan.

The Indian team maintained its good form in one-day internationals, defeating Pakistan 4–1 in Pakistan.

India set a world record by winning 17 consecutive matches while chasing the total. India easily defeated England on their tour of India, winning the series 5–1.

After tying the DLF Cup series 1–1 in Abu Dhabi, India toured to the West Indies and lost the ODI series 1–4 to a weak West Indies team ranked 8th in the ICC ODI Ranking.

The series loss called into question the Indian team's ability to play away from the Subcontinent, as well as the Indian team's chances of winning the 2007 Cricket World Cup.

2007 : World Cup

Dravid's captaincy was cut short during the ill-fated 2007 World Cup, when India was knocked out of the league stage.

After an embarrassing loss to Bangladesh. Following that, Mahendra Singh Dhoni took over as captain.

2007 : First T20 World Cup

Inaugural T20 World Cup champions

MS Dhoni led India to victory in the inaugural T20 World Cup. 

It also marked the beginning of an era in which India dominated world cricket in both tests and one-day internationals.

 2011 : World Cup 

World cup 2011 Champions

India became World Cup Champion 2nd time in a 2011.

A 4–0 clean sweep Victory against Australia in a home ground test series boosted high level confidence.

It also saw three Indian batsmen score the only 200s ever, first Sachin Tendulkar, then Virender Sehwag, and finally Rohit Sharma.

2014

Mahendra Singh Dhoni is widely regarded as the most successful Indian captain of all time.

However, after a drubbing in a test series in Australia in late 2014, he retired from test format.

2017

In June 2017, India visited England for the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy, where the Virat Kohli-led team was defeated by Pakistan in the final by 180 runs.

Later, India toured the Windies, winning the ODI series 3–1 but losing the T20I series.

India became the first team to cleansweep Sri Lanka in ODI series on home ground, defeating them 9–0 in all three formats.

2018

In January 2018, Virat Kohli led the Indian team on a tour of South Africa, where they were defeated in the Test series by a score of 1–2.

However, the team displayed extraordinary skills in defeating the powerful South African team, winning the ODI series 5–1 and the T20I series 2–1.

With the series victory, India became the second Asian country, after Pakistan, to defeat South Africa in ODI and T20I series on their home soil.

2019 : World Cup

India was defeated in the World Cup semi-finals by New Zealand in 2019.

Indian team was being considered as winner since beginning of the World Cup 2019 by his past performance.