The Central Zone of the Ranji Trophy, 1998-99 saw the participation of 5 teams, all the regular participants of the tournament, mainly coming from the Central region of India. The Ranji Trophy has earned a lot of popularity for being the premium domestic cricket tournament in India and the Central zone teams in the tournament included the likes of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Vidarbha and Railways. The teams played against each other in the zonal level league matches with a view of becoming one the top three teams in the zone. The main reason behind this view was to get a chance for competing in the Super League stage of the tournament. Among all the teams in the Central Zone, only the teams like Madhya Pradesh, Railways and Rajasthan eventually entered into the Super League stage. The Madhya Pradesh, Railways and Rajasthan teams earned total of 18, 17 and 16 points, respectively from the zonal level league matches.

The teams of Madhya Pradesh and Vidarbha played against each other in the first of the Central Zone league matches in the Ranji Trophy, 1998-99 and the two teams played the match at Indore from 22-25 October, 1998. The match remained drawn during the specified period of time and the match officials awarded the Madhya Pradesh and Vidarbha teams 5 and 3 points, respectively for the match. The second match of the zone was played between the teams of Rajasthan and Railways and the match was held at Jaipur from 22-25 October, 1998. The Railways team got a very good start in the tournament, as it clinched a victory of an innings and 44 runs to earn 8 points from the match. The Rajasthan team remained pointless in the match. The Railways team appeared in the third match of the zone also and this time, it played against the Madhya Pradesh team at Delhi from 30 October-02 November, 1998. The Madhya Pradesh and Railways teams earned 5 and 3 points, respectively from the drawn match.

The Uttar Pradesh and Vidarbha teams appeared in the fourth of the Central Zone league matches in the Ranji Trophy, 1998-99 and the match took place at Nagpur from 30 October-02 November, 1998. The match remained drawn during the specified period of time and the Uttar Pradesh and Vidarbha teams earned 5 and 36 points, respectively from the match. The Rajasthan team then played against the Uttar Pradesh team in the next match of the Central Zone and the match was held at Jaipur from 07-10 November, 1998. The drawn match saw the Rajasthan team earning 5 points and Uttar Pradesh earning 3 points from it. The next match of the zone involved the teams like Railways and Vidarbha and the match took place at Delhi from 07-10 November, 1998. The match remained drawn during the stipulated duration and the match officials awarded both the Railways and Vidarbha teams 3 points, each for the match.

The seventh of the Central Zone league matches in the Ranji Trophy, 1998-99 saw the teams of Vidarbha and Rajasthan playing against each other at Nagpur from 15-18 November, 1998. Both the teams played wonderfully in the match and the closely contested match saw the Rajasthan team winning by a narrow margin of only 2 wickets. The Rajasthan team earned 8 points from the match and the Vidarbha team failed to earn any points from the match. The teams of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh played against each other in the next match of the Central Zone and the two teams played the match at Kanpur from 15-18 November, 1998. The Uttar Pradesh team earned 5 points and Madhya Pradesh earned 3 points from the drawn match. The Madhya Pradesh team appeared in the next match of the zone also and this time, it played against the Rajasthan team at Indore from 28-31 December, 1998. The match also remained drawn during the specified period of time and the match officials awarded the Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan teams 5 and 3 points, respectively for the match. The teams of Uttar Pradesh and Railways played against each other in the last of the Central Zone league matches in the Ranji Trophy, 1998-99. The match was organised at Kanpur from 28-31 December, 1998 and both the Uttar Pradesh and Railways teams earned 3 points, each from the match.