A number of 5 teams participated under the South Zone in the Ranji Trophy, 1982-83 and the teams were selected by the BCCI from the Southern region of India. All the teams had been playing in the tournament for the previous several editions and they included the likes of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Hyderabad, Andhra and Kerala. Though all the teams gave their best efforts to claim the top spot in the zone, the teams like Karnataka and Tamil Nadu eventually became the toppers in the zone. Both the teams earned a total of 26 points, at the end of the zonal level league matches and they competed against the top teams of the other zones in the knock out level of the tournament, for the championship title.

The first of the South Zone league matches in the Ranji Trophy, 1982-83 was played between the teams of Karnataka and Andhra at Bangalore from 04-06 December, 1982. The Karnataka team earned the full 9 points from the match, by winning it with a huge margin of 117 runs. The clash between the teams of Hyderabad and Tamil Nadu took place in the second match of the zone and the match was held at Secunderabad from 04-06 December, 1982. The drawn match saw the Hyderabad team earning 5 points and Tamil Nadu earning 3 points from it. The Hyderabad team then played against the Kerala team in the next match of the zone and the match took place at Kothagudem from 10-12 December, 1982. The winner of the match was the Hyderabad team with a margin of an innings and 14 runs and the team earned 9 points from the match, as well.

The Andhra and Kerala teams clashed with each other in the fourth of the South Zone league matches in the Ranji Trophy, 1982-83, which was organised at Venkatagiri from 14-16 December, 1982. The Andhra team earned 8 valuable points from the match, as the team won it with a margin of an innings and 127 runs. The match between the teams of Karnataka and Hyderabad was the next match of the zone and it was held at Bangalore from 18-20 December, 1982. The Karnataka and Hyderabad teams earned 5 and 3 points, respectively from the match, as it remained drawn during the specified period of time. The Tamil Nadu team appeared in the next match of the zone against the Andhra team at Madras from 18-19 December, 1982. The Tamil Nadu team won the match by an innings and 98 runs to earn the entire 9 points from it.

There was a clash between the teams of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka in the seventh of the South Zone league matches in the Ranji Trophy, 1982-83, which took place at Madras from 24-26 December, 1982. The drawn match saw the Tamil Nadu team earning 5 points and Karnataka earning 3 points, respectively from it. The Tamil Nadu team appeared in the next match of the zone also and this time, it played against the Kerala team at Palghat from 08-10 January, 1983. The match saw the Tamil Nadu team earning the full 9 points form it, by clinching a huge victory of 10 wickets. The Kerala team then played against the Karnataka team in the next match of the zone at Calicut from 21-23 January, 1983. The match was won by the Karnataka team with a margin of 10 wickets and the team earned 9 points from the match, as well. The teams of Andhra and Hyderabad clashed with each other in the last of the South Zone league matches in the Ranji Trophy, 1982-83. The match was held at Guntur from 22-24 January, 1983 and it saw the Hyderabad team earning the entire 9 points, by clinching a victory of 8 wickets.