Introduction

History of Indian Cricket reveals the fact that though the game was introduced by the British Government in India, its popularity kept on increasing with passing time. Cricket is now celebrated as a major sport in India. Cricket is considered to be a religion in India. There are no sure theories about the origin of Cricket in India but as British ruled on India for over 200 years, the game can be called as their legacy. The game took around four centuries to reach India. British brought this game to India in the 17th century. The first ever cricket match in India was played in 1721 AD. Initially accepted by the Parsi community, this game of foreigners began to appear in organized form with the establishment of the "Oriental Cricket Club" in 1848.

India started playing Cricket way back in 1721 unofficially but was granted the official test status in 1932. They played their first test cricket match from 25th June to 28th June in the year 1932 against England at Lords` in London. India was lead by C.K. Nayudu at that time. India was considered a weak team in the Cricketing Circuit for long time but Indian team changed from 1950s and is a major force to reckon with today.

Pre-independence History of Indian Cricket

During the British rule, few Indian played as a member of the English cricket team, which included KS Duleepsinghji and Ranjitsinghji. India, as a nation, made its Test match debut in the year 1932, much before independence, under the leadership of CK Nayudu. The team did well, with Mohammad Nassir taking 5-93 and 1-42 in the match against England. The match was of 3 days where England having won the toss batted first and scored 259 with Nissar cleaning up the openers and lower order batsman. But the Indian Team were unable to utilize the momentum that their bowlers had provided and they were bundled out for 189, with CK Nayudu the top scorer with 40 runs. England team went on to score 275 and set a target of 346 for India to chase. The chase was always out of reach for India and they collapsed for 187 and lost by 158 runs.

The Indian team`s first series as an independent country was in 1948 against Australia at Brisbane. Australians were led by Sir Don Bradman while India was led by Lala Amarnath. Australia cruised home, winning the 5 Test series 4-0.

History of Cricket in India to 1918
Beginnings
The complete history of cricket in India in particular and the sub-continent as a whole is based on the existence and development of the British Raj via the British East India Company.

On 31st December 1600, Queen Elizabeth-I approved a Royal Charter to the East India Company, which was often called the "John Company". To start with it was a joint-stock company that required trading advantages in India and the East Indies, but the Royal Charter successfully gave it a 21 year monopoly on all trade in the area. In time, the East India Company changed from a commercial trading project to one which practically ruled India as it obtained auxiliary governmental and military tasks, until its termination in 1858 following the Indian Mutiny. The East India Company was the means by which cricket first came into India.

In 1639, the Company effectively founded the city of Madras (Chennai) and in 1661 acquired Portuguese territory on the west coast of India that included Bombay (Mumbai). In 1690, an Anglo-Moghul treaty allowed English merchants to set up a trading settlement on the Hooghly River, which became Kolkata. All of these places became major cricket hubs as the fame of the game grew among the citizen.
Early developments

The first specific mention to cricket being played anywhere in the sub-continent is a report of English sailors of the East India Company written in 1737. It says cricket being played at Cambay, near Vadodara in 1721.

The Calcutta Cricket and Football Club is said to have been come into existence by 1792, but was possibly set up more than a decade earlier. In 1799, another club was set up at Seringapatam in South India after the successful British siege and the defeat of Tipu Sultan.

Beginning of First-Class Cricket
Madras (Chennai) Vs Calcutta (Kolkata) match, played in the year 1864, was arguably the stepping stone for first-class cricket in India.

The most essential clash in the 19th century was the Bombay Presidency Match which developed first into the Bombay Triangular and then, into the Bombay Quadrangular. The match first took place in the year 1877 and then alternately for quite a few seasons until ultimately being given first-class prominence in 1892-93.

George Vernon led the English team toured India in 1889-90. It was for the first time that a foreign team toured India but none of the matches that it played are considered first-class.

First-class cricket definitely began in the 1892-93 season with two Europeans Vs Parsees matches at Mumbai (match drawn) and Pune (Parsees won by 3 wickets). In the same season, Lord Hawke led an English team that played four first-class matches that included game against "All India" on 26-28 January 1893.

Domestic cricket
Bombay Presidency winners
1892-93 - Parsees
1893-94 - Europeans
1894-95 - Europeans shared with Parsees
1895-96 - Europeans shared with Parsees
1896-97 - Europeans
1897-98 - Parsees
1898-99 - Europeans
1899-00 - Europeans shared with Parsees
1900-01 - Parsees
1901-02 - Europeans shared with Parsees
1902-03 - Europeans shared with Parsees
1903-04 - Parsees
1904-05 - Parsees
1905-06 - Hindus shared with Parsees
1906-07 - Hindus

Bombay Triangular winners
1907-08 - Parsees
1908-09 - Europeans
1909-10 - Europeans shared with Parsees
1910-11 - Europeans shared with Hindus
1911-12 - Parsees

Bombay Quadrangular winners
1912-13 - Parsees
1913-14 - Hindus shared with Muslims
1914-15 - Hindus shared with Parsees
1915-16 - Europeans
1916-17 - Europeans shared with Parsees
1917-18 - Hindus shared with Parsees

Leading players by season
The lists below give the leading first-class run scorers and wicket-takers in each first class season.
Batsmen
1892-93 - Ledger Hill (Lord Hawke`s XI) - 212 runs @ 35.33 (HS 132); the leading Indian batsman was Nasarvanji Bapasola with 155 @ 38.75 (HS 65)

Bowlers
1892-93 - John Hornsby (Lord Hawke`s XI) - 28 wickets @ 10.67 (BB 8-40); the leading Indian bowler was Dinshaw Writer with 19 @ 4.94 (BB 8-35)

Post Independence History of Indian Cricket

The first ever Test match victory by Indian team came against England at Chennai in the year 1952. First ever series win by India was in the year 1952 against Pakistan. In the year 1954, India drew a 5 match test series against Pakistan 0-0. The pillar of batting strength had come from Polly Umrigar and Vijay Manjrekar. And prime fast bowler of the team in the form of Subhash Gupte also contributed towards the success by chipping in with 21 wickets in the series.

India played its first ever series against New Zealand in the year 1956, and ended up winning the series with a 2-0 margin. MH Mankad was fantastic with his batting display and averaged 105.2 in the series with a score of 526 runs. Once again the responsibility of the bowling department was held by SM Gupte, and he took 34 crucial wickets. The later part of 1950s did not yield good result as the initial part did: India lost a 3-Test series to Australia (2-0), lost a 5-Test series against the West Indies (3-0), took a 5-0 thrashing at the hands of England, and lost a second series against a strong Australian side (2-1).

During the 1980s, other players like Mohammed Azharuddin, Ravi Shastri, Laxman Sivaramakrishnan, Sanjay Manjrekar, Krish Srikkanth and Maninder Singh emerged. India won the Cricket World Cup in 1983, defeating West Indies in an exciting final match at Lord`s.

India won the World Championship of Cricket in Australia in the year 1985. And the following year India won a test series in England, which remained, for nearly 19 years, the last Test series win outside subcontinent (until team led by Dravid won a series in 2007).

Later of course Mohinder Amarnath and "Mr. Dependable" Dilip Vengsarkar emerged into the scene; the latter was the undisputed No. 1 batsman in 1986-87. Sunil Gavaskar became the first ever batsman to accumulate 10,000 runs in Test cricket, and went on to register a record 34 centuries, surpassed by Sachin Tendulkar in the recent times. Kapil Dev, an authentic all-rounder, became the highest wicket taker in Test cricket, surpassing Richard Hadlee to take a total of 434 wickets, a record which has since been broken by Courtney Walsh, Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan and has also been surpassed by fellow Indian Anil Kumble.

The surfacing of Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble in 1989 and 1990 respectively was an indication towards beginning of an era in Indian cricket that was predominantly overshadowed by individual stardom and charisma. Arguably, Sachin Tendulkar became the best batsman in the world, along with Brian Lara of the West Indies. In 1998 Sir Donald Bradman himself remarked that batting style of Sachin Tendulkar was similar to his. Mohammed Azharuddin, who captained India for most of the 90s, proved a captain whose main strength, if not his motivational skills, was an ability to stay cool under pressure. The career of wrist-player from Hyderabad ended after 99 Tests when he was banned for life after being implicated in the match-fixing scandal. Under his captaincy, the Indian team became virtually unbeatable at home, with big wins coming against teams like England, New Zealand and Australia, but their performances abroad left a lot to be desired.

Towards the end of 1999, the Indian team was in transitional phase. The winter`s of 1999 was marked by a disastrous Aussie tour which exposed the Indian team`s weaknesses when playing abroad, marked with a loss of form of most of the batsmen, except Tendulkar and the newly-emerged VVS Laxman. After Sachin Tendulkar quit captaincy and Azharuddin was banned for match-fixing, Saurav Ganguly took over as captain, and the New Zealander John Wright became coach.

Ganguly`s captaincy started a new beginning for Indian cricket. It all began with famous series win against Australia in 2001. Steve Waugh`s aggressive Aussie team was defeated 2-1 in the series after they took the lead 1-0 in the series at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. The remarkable turnaround came with the Kolkata test match at Eden Gardens, when VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid and Harbhajan Singh`s performance took India to victory after they had followed on. This series marked a turning point in the Indian team`s destiny, and provided the team with the boost up they dearly needed. Henceforth, the team performed immensely both at home and aboard, with Test victories coming in Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, West Indies, England, Australia, and a famous series victory against arch-rivals Pakistan in 2004, Indian team was soaring high.

Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Virender Sehwag were picked to participate in "Super Test" against Australia. They were selected in the ICC World XI side in the year 2005. The later part of 2005 saw Indian cricket shrouded with controversies. The Saurav Ganguly and Greg Chappel (who succeeded as Indian coach after John Wright) spat came to the fore and it was a nasty phase in Indian cricket. Eventually, Ganguly lost his captaincy and place in the side, and Rahul Dravid took over as the captain of the team. Dravid captained the side for two years. There are some high points and low points during his tenure as captain, with the latter dominating over the former. The win over West Indies to mark a series win in the Caribbean after 35 years, the 2007 test series win in England after 26 years, were some of the record Indian team achieved under Rahul`s leadership.

While Tendulkar, Ganguly, Sehwag and Dravid formed the mainstay of the Indian batting during late 1990 and early 2000, the coming of age of players like Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif, and also the emergence of stars like Suresh Raina and Mahendra Singh Dhoni had boosted the Indian team by a huge margin.

In the bowling department, likes of Irfan Pathan, Santhakumaran Sreesanth, R.P. Singh, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel came into the fray.

Contemporary History of Indian Cricket

Historically the main strength of Indian Team has always been batting and spin-bowling. Presently Indian Team has one of the strong batting line-ups in the world, with the likes of batting legends like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virender Sehwag etc. India has always been known for producing quality spinners, but during the Super Test series between ICC World XI and Australia, the likes of Rahul, Sachin and Sehwag found place in the World XI squad. Previously it was a situation where India would field three spinners for a match, while the general norm among the teams had been to field one spinner. In the recent years, however, Indian pace bowling has improved, with the emerging talents of Irfan Pathan, Munaf Patel and Santhakumaran Sreesanth and many more playing in the national team.

Traditionally, India has never been able to perform well overseas, but its home record has been phenomenal. Since 2000, under the leadership of Saurav Ganguly, and proper help and guidance from Coach John Wright Indian team began to perform well overseas. The team played exceedingly well against Australia, which is usually considered a difficult tour. It was followed by a historic Test and ODI series win against arch-rivals Pakistan while playing in Pakistan.

India has never had good record against the Australians in Australia, in the past. But the 2004-05 tour changed the scenario and India squared the test series, which was labeled as "The Final Frontier". The popular 2001 series against Australia at home saw Harbhajan Singh become the first Indian bowler to take a hat-trick, in the second test match at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. India won the test series 2-1.

Since 2004, there have been steep downslides in the Indian performances. Following the series loss to Australia, India collapsed on the final day in the Third Test in Bengaluru in early 2005 against Pakistan to squander a series victory, and then lost four consecutive ODIs against Pakistan. Greg Chappell took over the reign from John Wright. There were some chopping and changing that took place in the side; Captain Ganguly lost his place in the side and also captaincy, which went to Rahul Dravid. Anil Kumble and VVS Laxman were left out of ODI scheme of things.

Lots of young players came into the side and India defeated Sri Lanka 6-1 at home. Players like Suresh Raina, Gautam Gambhir and Irfan Pathan began to perform well for the side. The team played well and the rub of the green went in their favour. India won series against England, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan in both Tests and ODI. However India at the 2007 World Cup was a complete failure. They were unable to qualify to the second round.

After winning the Test series against England in August 2007, Rahul Dravid stepped down as the captain of the team following which Mahendra Singh Dhoni was made the captain of the Twenty20 and ODI team. In September 2007, it won the first ever Twenty20 World Cup held in South Africa, beating Pakistan by 5 runs in a thrilling final. Then they toured Australia with a controversial series that they lost 2-1 in test but come back for a whitewash final against them.

Recently, India won the Cricket World Cup in 2011, after a long time since 1983, under the captaincy of Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh became the man of the tournament. The Indian team beat Sri Lanka by 6 wickets, in the final match which was played in Mumbai. Apparently, India became the first country to win the tournament in native soil.

Indian Cricket During Independence

Indian cricket had to struggle very hard for its existence during the independence movement, in the 1940s. It was the decade when the Indian team could not go for any overseas tour, or even could not invite any foreign team to come and play in India. The cricket governing bodies faced a lot of obstacles in organizing the domestic cricket tournaments, as well and all these happened, mainly due to the Second World War. The World War forced the people not to play cricket or do anything during the first half of the 1940s and once it was finished, the Indian team again started playing Test cricket, from the year of 1946.

The Indian team went for their third England tour in the year 1946, though it could not do well, as the World War and the independence movement did hamper the team`s performances. India was going through the process and distresses of independence and Partition at that point of time and India`s domestic cricketing structure was also in turmoil. However, in spite of all these, the Indian cricket did make some significant advances, as two Indian players, Vijay Merchant and Vijay Hazare made some brilliant performances in the domestic cricket. The Indian cricket enthusiasts also turned their interests to domestic cricket, as there was no international cricket.

The foremost tournament in the colonial India was the Bombay Pentangular tournament and the Ranji Trophy and both the Vijays engaged themselves in creating and breaking each other`s records in the tournaments. The great conflict between Merchant and Hazare started in the 1941-42 season, when Vijay Merchant recorded the highest score in the Pentangular, scoring 243 runs for the Hindus against the Muslims. Hazare broke the record in the very next season, when he scored 248 runs against the Muslims.

However, the record of Vijay Merchant could not stay intact for longer, as Vijay Merchant scored an unbeaten 250 against the Rest, very shortly. Hazare was very quick to reply to that and he played a wonderful innings of 309 runs, while batting for the Rest in the same match. The most important and interesting thing about the creating and breaking of these records was that, the two batsmen did all these things within the span of only one week, between 29th November and 6th December 1943. The on field clashes between Vijay Merchant and Vijay Hazare did continue in the Ranji Trophy as well, as Merchant made 141 runs, while batting for Bombay against Baroda. Vijay Hazare soon replied Merchant with a brilliant innings of 101 runs and Merchant once again bettered Hazare in the very next match against Maharashtra, when he scored a mammoth 359 runs. This clash of the titans like Vijay Merchant and Vijay Hazare was undoubtedly the most important and significant incident in Indian cricket during independence and it also helped the game of cricket to retain the attractions of Indian people in the struggling days.

First Indian Cricket Club

The first Indian Cricket club, named the Parsee Oriental Cricket Club, was founded in that year and they played their first match in Bombay (Mumbai). From this point, the journey of Indian cricket began. This cricket club of Mumbai marked the beginning of interest of Indian people in cricket. The first official cricket match was played between Parsis and Europeans in 1877 AD. Till late 19th century people of this country did not open their hearts to the game.

Indian Cricket in 20th Century

After its initiation, Cricket started gaining popularity among the Indian people within a short period of time. The middle and last half of the 19th century was an important period in the history of Indian Cricket, as the game spread its reach in almost all the parts of India during that period.

The First Test Match was played in 1932. Though India did not have a national cricket team during the early 1900s, a few Indian great cricketers of that era did represent the England cricket team. Maharaja Ranjit Singh and Duleep Singhji were the prominent ones among them.

Indian Cricket during 1950s

After Independence, a big push came in the history of Indian Cricket, when India got its first ever Test series win against the neighbouring Asian counterpart and archrivals Pakistan, in 1952. The series saw brilliant and extraordinary performances from some of the greatest Indian Cricket players like Polly Umrigar, Vijay Manjrekar and S.M. Gupte.

Indian Cricket During 1960s

Indian cricket team during 1960s did get some significant successes that include some wonderful individual performances like the world record opening partnership of 413 runs between Pankaj Roy and Vinoo Mankad against New Zealand in 1955. The world record stood tall till the first half of this year, when the South African opening pair, Graeme Smith and Neil McKenzie broke it. Mankad-Roy`s partnership stood tall for as long as 53 years and the new record of 415 runs was made by Smith-McKenzie, in March, 2008, against Bangladesh. Some other brilliant performance in this decade was Subhash Gupte`s leg spin magic against the West Indies in West Indies in 1952-53 and also the Jasu Patel`s stand-out performance against Richie Benaud`s Australians in 1958-59.

While making the world record opening partnership of 413 runs for India, the great batsmen, Vinoo Mankad and Pankaj Roy batted throughout the entire first day of the Test against New Zealand, which itself was a record. The partnership was really a valuable one for India, as it helped India clinch a huge an innings and 109-run victory in the fifth and final Test against New Zealand at home in 1955. They surpassed the previous world record of 359 runs, made by England`s Len Hutton and Cyril Washbrook against South Africa in 1948-49. They showed a lot of grit and determination and batted out some hostile spells of bowling from the famous New Zealand bowlers like Cave and Hayes. Mankad eventually got out for 231 runs, that was the highest individual score by an Indian till then and the score of Roy was 173 runs. Roy also scored another two centuries in the same series and became one of the star players for India in its second home series win.

The Indian team presented some more glorious and spectacular moments for the Indian cricket enthusiasts in the 1960s, as they established themselves a team to reckon with on sub continental soil with consistent performances at home. The team first became successful to win a Test series against the England team for the first time in its history in 1961-62. It was considered as a sweet revenge, as the England team did white-washed the Indian team in its previous tour of England, in 1959. India won the four match series in 1961-62 by 1-0, by winning the last match, after drawing the first three.

The series saw an equal battle between the India and England team, as none of the teams could beat each other in the first three Test matches of the series. The fourth and final Test of the series held at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata and the Indian team, led by Noorie Contractor, played extremely well to beat the England by a huge margin of an innings and 187 runs. The famous players like Chandu Borde, Pataudi and Sunil Durrani were the stars for India in the victory. Borde gave an all-round performance in the matches, with two innings of 66 and 61 runs in the match and a bowling figure of 4-65 and Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi made a spectacular century of 103 runs, in the first innings. Durrani got a match-bowling figure of 8-113 and played his own part to help his team get the historical series win against England.

The Indian team also got its first Test series wins in the New Zealand tour in 1968, during the same decade and the decade saw the rise of India`s fabulous spin quartet of Bishan Singh Bedi, B.S. Chandrasekhar, Erapalli Prasanna and S. Venkataraghavan. It was the decade of 1960s that also gave indication about the fact that the Indian team was going go get some more great successes in the 1970s.

>Indian Cricket during 1970s

The era of India`s spin quartet comprising Bishen Singh Bedi, Erapalli Prasanna, B.S. Chandrasekhar and Srinivas Venkataraghavan during 1970s, is considered as the golden era in the history of Indian Cricket. Apart from the spinners, 1970s also saw the rising of two of India"s greatest ever batsmen - Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Vishwanath. All of these great Indian Cricket players made their presence felt in the international circuit and contributed immensely in the success of Indian team. India successfully won consecutive Test series in West Indies and England in 1971 and the team was led by Ajit Wadekar, in both the series.

Indian Cricket during 1980s

During the 1980s, India developed a more attack minded batting line-up with stroke makers such as Mohammed Azharuddin, Dilip Vengsarkar and all-rounder Ravi Shastri prominent during this time. India won the Cricket World Cup in 1983, defeating West Indies in the final. In 1984, India won the Asia Cup and in 1985, won the World Championship of Cricket in Australia. Apart from this, India remained a very weak team outside the Indian subcontinent. The 1980s saw Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev at the pinnacle of their careers. Sunil Gavaskar made a Test record 34 centuries as he became the first man to reach the 10,000 run mark. Kapil Dev later became the highest wicket taker in Test cricket with 434 wickets.

Indian Cricket during 1990s

The addition of Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble to the national side in 1989 and 1990 improved the Indian Cricket team. The following year, Javagal Srinath, India`s fastest bowler since Amar Singh, made his debut. Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly made their debut in the same Test at Lord`s. Sachin Tendulkar resigned; vowing never to captain the team again, with Saurav Ganguly appointed the new captain. The team was further damaged in 2000 when former captain Mohammad Azharuddin and fellow batsman Ajay Jadeja were implicated in a match-fixing scandal and given life bans

Indian Cricket during 2000s

Since 2000, the Indian team underwent major improvements with the appointment of John Wright as India`s first ever foreign coach. India maintained their unbeaten home record against Australia in Test series after defeating them in 2001. The series was famous for the Kolkata Test match, in which India became only the third team in the history of Test cricket to win a Test match after following on.

Victory in 2001 against the Australians marked the beginning of a dream run for India under their captain Saurav Ganguly, winning Test matches in Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, West Indies and England. The England series is also known for India`s highest ODI run-chase of 325 runs at Lord`s which came in the Natwest ODI Series final against England. In the same year, India was joint winners of the ICC Champions Trophy with Sri Lanka, and then went to the 2003 Cricket World Cup in South Africa where they reached the final only to be beaten by Australia.

Greg Chappell took over from John Wright as the new coach of the Indian cricket team following the series, and his methods proved to be controversial during the beginning of his tenure. The tension resulted in fallout between Chappell and Ganguly, resulting in Rahul Dravid being made captain. This triggered a revival in the team`s fortunes, following the emergence of players like Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Irfan Pathan and Yuvraj Singh.

Introduction of Twenty20 International Tournaments in India

In December 2006, India played and won its first ever Twenty20 International in South Africa, becoming the most recent Test team to play Twenty20 cricket. After winning the Test series against England in August 2007, Rahul Dravid stepped down as the captain of the team following which Mahendra Singh Dhoni was made the captain of the Twenty20 and ODI team. In September 2007, it won the first ever Twenty20 World Cup held in South Africa, beating Pakistan by 5 runs in a thrilling final.

India in World Cup 2011

India under the coaching of Gary Kristen won the Cricket World Cup in 2011, after a long time since 1983, under the captaincy of Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh became the man of the tournament. The Indian team beat Sri Lanka by 6 wickets, in the final match which was played in Mumbai. Apparently, India became the first country to win the tournament in native soil.

India played its 500th Test match against New Zealand at Kanpur from 22nd September 2016. India won this match by 197 runs. This test was played under the captaincy of Virat Kohli.