The Mumbai Raj in the Ranji Trophy (The Story of Sheer Dominance).
In India, the popularity of cricket is something that every Indian cherishes. There is a saying that the British gave birth to cricket, but India nurtured this beautiful game. Additionally, there is another saying from the past: “If you play well against Bombay, you create a chance for yourself to get into the Indian team.” In the 90-year history of the Ranji Trophy, Mumbai alone dominated and captured the trophy 41 times. Mumbai, then known as Bombay, has always been known as the hub of cricketers. Take, for example, Vijay Merchant, Sunil Gavaskar, and Dilip Sardesai, and their contributions to the Indian team. Mumbai has always been lucky with the talent it has nurtured. In the past, every single team — Baroda, Saurashtra, Delhi — wanted to win against Bombay.
There’s a famous story that just to challenge Bombay’s dominance, Bishan Singh Bedi, the legendary left-arm spinner for India, called a lot of talented players such as Madan Lal, Arun Lal, and Chetan Chauhan to come together and play for Delhi, challenge Bombay’s dominance. It eventually helped when Delhi won for the first time in the 1979/80 Ranji season, breaking Bombay’s dominance.
Players such as Sunil Gavaskar, Vijay Merchant, Ajit Wadekar, Polly Umrigar, and Dilip Vengsarkar are considered the greats of Indian cricket. They all did wonders for India in the past, and all the talents of these players were nurtured in the Mumbai team, which had a well-organized league for its constituent clubs. Even if you see the Mumbai Ranji team from the 80s, they never disappointed us and produced legendary cricketers for India. The best example is Sachin Tendulkar. At the age of 15, Tendulkar scored 100 not out on his Ranji Trophy debut against Gujarat at the Wankhede Stadium, making him the youngest Indian to score a century on debut in the Ranji Trophy. That shows how well-oiled the cricket structure works in Bombay cricket. Winning 41 trophies gives you reasons to study Bombay cricket. At one point, players from Bombay, especially batters, were considered “khados players,” meaning players who were there to bat all day and not take risks.
But eventually, things changed, and players like Vinod Kambli in the late 80s and then in the current era, players like Rohit Sharma, Surya Kumar Yadav, and Yashasvi Jaiswal came and broke the perception about Mumbai cricket by playing attacking cricket. All the current lot of players are always ready to take calculated risks, especially after the IPL and T20 leagues. They have the freedom, financially and in the captain’s faith, to play cricket the way they know.
When we look at the older generation of Bombay cricketers, we have many examples of how those players stayed at the crease for 2–3 days, always promising assurance, which definitely seems to be missing in the current lot of players, which is the case all over the country, not just in Mumbai. Although lots of things have changed, playing for Mumbai or performing against Mumbai is still considered a fruitful opportunity for a lot of young Indian cricketers. They also saw a decline in the latter half of the 1980s; it was Bombay’s least successful period with no final appearances in five consecutive seasons. But within five years, they came up and won the 1993–94 season, eventually winning for six more consecutive Ranji seasons, leaving out the 2001–2002 season.
This shows how consistent the team was at that time. However, after the 2015–16 seasons, they didn’t have the same consistency, failing in the knockout a couple of times. Teams like Vidarbha and Saurashtra are coming up and giving strong performances against Mumbai, showing how competitive cricket is, which ultimately helps Indian cricket. On the other hand, a couple of failures in recent times are common, but Mumbai is looking to get back on track rather than relying on previous track records, and the current season of 2023–24 is definitely giving a positive indication towards Mumbai’s success, winning 4 out of 5 matches of the group stages in an Elite B division, giving a positive sign for the 42nd title.