The Men behind the trophies: Tournaments and the cricketers they were named for

Some of India's most iconic trophies have a rich history behind their names. With the history of some eminent cricketing figures behind them, here's a look at 5 big tournaments in India and the personalities they were named for.

Duleep Trophy

This was named after Kumar Duleepsinhji of Nawanagar.

About the tournament:

The Duleep Trophy commenced in 1961 by the BCCI. Contested every year by five zonal teams until the 2015-2016 season, the tournament saw an overhaul in format 2016 onwards.

Earlier fought in a round-robin format between teams from the East, West, North, South and Central Zones, it is contested now between India Red, India Blue and India Green. Selectors pick teams for the Duleep Trophy of a specific year on the basis of their performance in the preceding year's Ranji Trophy season, although which team they will play for is arbitrary.

Who was Kumar Duleepsinhji?

Born into a noble family - the Jamsahibs of Nawanagar in India, Duleep was the nephew of an altogether perhaps more famous face and an iconic name in wrld cricket: Maharaja Ranjitsinhji, for whom the Ranji Trophy is named. Just as talented as his famous uncle, Duleep has repeatedly been judged one of the best players in the history of Test cricket. And just like his famous uncle, Duleep too played cricket for England.

In fact, history records the young prince as being awed by his perhaps more famous uncle, who was also his mentor - and his coach, which may explain a lot of Duleep's own prowess.

Duleep first began his cricketing career during his schooling in England in the 1920s and 30s, progressing from the collegiate level at Cheltenham, to the University of Cambridge team, to the county level for Sussex, and eventually, he was called up to the English national team.

Duleepsinhji scored as many as fifty First-Class centuries over eight seasons, and he would have been part of a side that toured Australia in 1932 had recurrent illness not hampered his progress. Recurring ailments eventually saw the end of Duleep's career. In fact, he would have been a certainty for the Ashes that year had a physician not diagnosed him with the pulmonary condition that would take his life many years later.

He may have given up playing cricket then, but Duleep never remained very far from the sport. He worked as a selector for both countries - England and India - up until his death, and served in the Indian Foreign Office after Independence in 1947, when he was 42.

He took up chairmanship of the All-India Sports Council in 1959, and served in that role effectively until his death at the relatively young age of 54 later that same year, of cardiac arrest that followed the same pulmonary issues he had faced for many years prior.

The Duleep Trophy was instituted in his honour just over a decade after his passing.

Fun Fact: For five seasons, between 2003 and 2008, the Duleep Trophy saw one foreign team feature as a guest squad, most recently the England Lions from '07 to '08.

The Ranji Trophy

Kumar Ranjitsinhji

About the trophy

The first ever match in the Ranji Trophy was held at Chennai's prestigious M.A. Chidambaram Stadium, known to fans as Chepauk - the country's oldest cricket stadium.The most well-known and prestigious of India's regional tournaments, the Ranji Trophy was named for Maharaja Ranjitsinhji, the Jam Sahib of Nawanagar.

Instituted by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 1934, a year after Ranjitsinhji's passing, the tournament is contested by state cricketing teams and first-class cricketing clubs.

The Ranji Trophy has seen drastic changes to its format in the past few years. Initially, this tournament saw teams grouped into zonal sections, where they played an intra-zonal, single-elimination format and saw five final teams compete round-robin to determine an eventual winner.

That changed to a tiered system, with teams grouped into each tier playing a round-robin format, then the top two from each of the main tiers - A and B, would contest the trophy.

Who was Ranjitsinhji?

A regular on many 'Greatest of All Time' cricketing lists, Ranjitsinhji was born not directly into, but as a cousin of the noble family of Nawanagar in present-day Gujarat. The son of a farmer and one of his wives (polygamy was widely practised in that time), 'Ranji' as he came to be known, was related to the Nawanagar family through the patriarch of his own.

When the ruler's own son, who had been intended to be his heir, proved to have a propensity for violence, the king disinherited him, and replaced him at the time with Ranjitsinhji, who was adopted at age 5 by the Jam Sahib.

Although he began to play cricket at the age of 10, Ranjitsinhji was known to be more interested in tennis, and indeed when he went to the United Kingdom for further study, was hoping to be awarded a university Blue to play that sport for Cambridge.

At 18 and with some potential but not an effective way to channel it, Ranjitsinhji began working with first-class cricketer Daniel Hayward, who honed his skills. It was widely believed at the time that Ranji had eluded selection on more than one occasion due to race. Working with Hayward and constant practice at the nets meant that Ranji had improved by leaps and bounds, and he commenced his first-class cricketing career in 1893, aged 21, for Trinity College, Cambridge.

It was there where he earned the nickname Ranji, the primary reason being that his teammates could not pronounce 'Ranjitsinh'.

Ranji's transition from Trinity to county cricket was more out of compulsion after he failed the Bar exam, and although he received a call-up to Sussex, the arrangement made for the best amateurs in that day meant Ranji could not play anything barring exhibition or festival matches, thereby seriously restricting what he could do.

He impressed seriously over the next few years, becoming quite a crowd draw, and made his Test debut in 1896 for England, where he had established his home. He toured Australia with the team, and despite struggling with illness during some of that time, impressed fans.

'Ranji' took a break for the following year, looking to return to claim the throne of Nawanagar, putting forward negotiations with the British then - and having done this, returned to England a renewed man and with improved cricketing skills. It was during this time that Ranji hit his peak, making several of his top scores as he excelled for Sussex.

But the threat of bankruptcy had become real for the cricketer and he became dogged more and more consistently by troublesome finances. Despite leading Sussex, Ranjitsinhji found himself faltering and never really returned to his peak afterwards, although he did find some peaks in what was an increasingly middling career and poor health.

Ranji had a particularly rich purple patch of form in 1904, during which he scored 5 fifty-run scores and a staggering eight centuries. Those performances shot him yet again to the top of the batting averages, but soon after, a now ailing Ranji was unable to play with his initial form. He left for India at the end of 1904, and although he returned to England in the years after, he was largely based in India until his death in 1933.

Vijay Hazare Trophy

About the tournament

Essentially the One-Day equivalent of the Ranji Trophy, the Vijay Hazare trophy is played with the same teams, who are slotted arbitrarily into four groups, A, B, C and D, and not necessarily on the basis of geographical location.

The members of each group play each other in a round-robin format, the results of which decide the winner and runner-up of each group as eventual quarter-finalists. The top 2 teams from each Group qualify for the quarter-finals, although no two teams from the same group will contest one another.

The format of the Vijay Hazare, although previously zonal, was streamlined significantly over the years after several changes.

Tamil Nadu are the defending champions of the Vijay Hazare trophy, having defeated Bengal in the finals in the 2016-2017 season.

Who was Vijay Hazare?

Yet another feature on several 'Greats' lists, Vijay Hazare was perhaps one of the most notable early cricketers to play for India, as opposed to a number of men born and playing in the years before him, who chose to play for England, under whose rule India would remain for the large majority of Hazare's own cricketing career.

Born in the British Presidency of Bombay in Sangli, which is in modern-day Maharashtra, Hazare came from fairly modest means; his father was a schoolteacher, and the young Hazare had seven siblings, as was common for that time. One of his siblings, Vivek, also played first class cricket, and was on a few teams led by his brother.

Although he was known most for his skills with the bat, the right-hander was also adept at medium-pace.

Hazare - who was considered by many a 'mild-mannered' man, was thought to be unfit for captaincy, but nevertheless, as one of India's first ever cricketing captains, he was the first to lead the side to victory.

Hazare excelled in the longer formats of the game, setting high averages in both Tests and first class cricket; incidentally, he made his debut for India against England at Lords in 1946. He would become the first Indian to lead the team to Test victory - also against England, but six years later at then-Madras, in 1952.

In his 20s, Hazare won one of his most remarkable feats, and perhaps one of his biggest records. Playing for Maharashtra against Baroda in Pune in 1939, 24-year-old Vijay Hazare finished his innings at 316 not out, and became the first Indian to score a triple century in cricket. 80 years on from then, it is still not a common feat.

That was not the only triple century Hazare would score.

Incidentally, it was at the Ranji Trophy that Hazare excelled most, finishing with 6312 runs in the format at an average of 68.61. But his Test win against England for India in 1952, 5 years after Indian independence, was the crowning glory of the Mumbai batsman's career.

A talented pacer, Hazare took just under 600 first-class wickets.

Hazare was capped variously for Maharashtra, Central India and Baroda over his Ranji career, and scored 22 centuries in the format.

He faded away from cricket in the years following 1953, but took an active interest in cricket and was on the BCCI's selection comitttee, chairing it in 1960.

Hazare and Jasubhai Patel became the first cricketers to be awarded India's fourth-highest civilian honour, the Padma Shri, in 1960.

At 89 years old, Hazare lost a lengthy battle with cancer in 2004.

Kumar Ranjitsinhji

Deodhar Trophy

Although in its past the Deodhar Trophy was a zonal tournament, in recent years it has become a three-team tournament. The 2016-17 edition was played in a three-team format between 2016-2017 Vijay Hazare trophy winners Tamil Nadu and two teams decided by the BCCI, which were India A and India B.

This was not always the case, with all editions till the 2014-2015 season played in the Zonal format; the 2015-2016 edition saw the first of the format changes, with then reigning Vijay Hazare champions Gujarat contesting against India A and India B.

The tournament was named for DB Deodhar.

Who was DB Deodhar?

Dinkar Balwant Deodhar was born in then-Poona, Maharashtra in 1892, and did not start off as a cricketer. Unlike many other cricketers of his time, he was not known to have shown any special prowess early on, and did not have early scoring success. Beginning his career as a professor of Sanskrit at Pune's iconic SP College, he was the captain of the Maharashtra Ranji Trophy team from 1939 to 1941 - from the age of 39 to 49.

He played 81 first-class matches over a total of 46 seasons, and amassed 4522 runs in that time. By the time India gained Test status in 1932, Deodhar was considered 'over the hill' despite doing well in first-class cricket even as he was nearing 50.

At 48 years old, he scored a double ton - 246 runs, against Bombay, then led by cricketing icon Vijay Merchant, in the 1940 Ranji Trophy.

Deodhar passed away in 1993 at 101.

Zal Irani

Irani Cup

Formerly known as the Irani Trophy, this was named after ZR Irani, the former treasurer of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for 14 years, from 1948 to 1962.

Initially conceived as a 25th anniversary commemorative for the Ranji Trophy, it is played between the winners of the Ranji Trophy and a team named the 'Rest of India XI', who are decided by selectors.

Who was ZR Irani?

A former cricketer himself, ZR Irani was attached to the BCCI in some capacity for over four decades until his death in 1970.

Initially on the board of treasurers, he was one of the BCCI's vice-presidents, and became its President for three years from 1966 to 1969 before his death.

It was in recognition of his long-term services to the Board that he saw a trophy named after him.

The first match of this series was played at the prestigious Feroze Shah Kotla stadium in New Delhi, with Polly Umrigar the then-captain of the Ranji Trophy winning team.

The 2016-17 season was won by the Rest of India, playing against reigning Ranji Trophy champions Gujarat.

Irani passed away in 1970.