Being considered as one of the leading domestic cricket tournaments in India, the Irani Trophy was launched in the years of 1959-60 by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). The BCCI inaugurated the tournament as a part of its celebration of the 25 years of the Ranji Trophy Championship and named the tournament after the late Z R Irani. Mr. Irani associated the BCCI since its inception in the year of 1928 till his death in 1970 and the tournament was named after him, in order to pay tribute to his wonderful contribution. Mr. Irani was also bore the responsibilities of the honorary treasurer of BCCI, from 1948 to 1962, one of the Vice-Presidents from 1963 to 1965 and eventually became the President from 1966 to 1969.

The first match of the Irani Trophy was played between the champions of the preceding year, the Bombay team and the Rest of India XI, at the Ferozshah Kotla Ground in Delhi from March 18 to 20, 1960. The Bombay team, led by Polly Umrigar, declared the winner in spite of the match being drawn, as Bombay was having a lead in the first innings. The tournament was organised by the BCCI at the fag end of the season, for the first few years. However, the board realised the importance of the fixture, very soon and moved to the tournament to the beginning of the season. The tournament has the tradition of heralding the start of the new domestic season, since 1965-66.

The importance of the Irani Trophy matches is quite high among the cricketers and the cricket administrators of India and a number of top class cricketers have played for India, after shining in this tournament. The matches are quite popular as well and the Irani Trophy matches are those rare domestic matches that are followed with keen interest by the cricket lovers in the country. The leading players also take part in the tournament that has often been considered as a sort of selection trial to pick the Indian team for foreign tours. There have been a number of extraordinary individual performances in the Irani Trophy that are cherished in the minds of Indian cricket enthusiasts.

The 246 runs` innings of Pravin Amre that he played for the Rest of India, against Bengal at Bangalore in 1990-91 is still considered to be the highest individual score for a batsman, in the tournament. The legendary Indian batsman, G R Vishwanath has the credit of being the batsman to score more than 1,000 runs in the Irani and he scored more than 1,001 runs at an average of 77.00, in nine matches. The famous left-arm spinner, Murali Kartik`s bowling figure of 9-70 for the Rest of India against Mumbai at the Wankhede Stadium in 2000-01, is considered to be the best bowling figure of Irani Trophy, so far. The match statistics of 13-138 made by Anil Kumble, for the Rest against Delhi at Delhi in 1992-93, is so far the best match-haul figure in Irani Trophy.