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The Ranji Trophy is a premier domestic first-class cricket championship played in India and organized annually by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). The teams representing regional and state cricket associations participate. BCCI founded the championship in 1934, Since then it has been organised across various grounds and stadiums in India.
The competition currently consists of 38 teams, with all 28 states in India and four of the eight union territories with at least one team from each. When the tournament was founded, it was named "the Cricket Championship of India", in 1935 it was renamed after Ranjitsinhji, who was the first Indian to play international cricket. He played for England from 1896 to 1902.
The Mumbai cricket team is the most successful team of the tournament, with a record 42 titles to their name.
The Mumbai cricket team holds the present title of the 2023–24 edition, which is its 42nd. It defeated Vidharbha cricket team in the final at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.
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The idea of a national level, first class championship tournament was proposed by BCCI's founder A.S. De Mello. The competition was launched following BCCI's meeting at Shimla in July 1934, with the first fixtures taking place in 1934–35 .Initially the tournament was named as 'The cricket championship of India', it later was renamed. The trophy was donated by Bhupinder Singh, the Maharaja of Patiala in memory of Kumar Shri Ranjitsinhji, Jam Sahib of Nawanagar who had died the previous year. The first match of the competition was held on 4 November 1934 between Madras and Mysore at the Chepauk ground in Madras (Now Chennai). Mumbai (Bombay) has won the tournament the most times with 42 wins including 15 back-to-back wins from 1958–59 to 1972–73.
In 2015 Paytm became the first company to hold the tournament's title sponsorship right by virtue of BCCI's title sponsorship deal.
The 2020–21 Ranji Trophy tournament was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the first season since the tournament's inception that it was not held.