| Team Name: | Mumbai cricket team |
| Native Name: | मुंबई क्रिकेट संघ |
| Coach: | Omkar Salvi |
| Founded: | 1865 |
| Ground: | Wankhede Stadium.... |
| Capacity: | 33,108 |
| Ground2: | Bandra Kurla Complex Ground |
| Capacity2: | 5,000 |
| Owner: | Mumbai Cricket Association |
| First Fc: | Lord Hawke's XI |
| First Fc Year: | 1892 |
| First Fc Venue: | Bombay Gymkhana. Bombay |
| Title1: | Ranji Trophy |
| Title1wins: | 42 |
| Title2: | Irani Cup |
| Title2wins: | 14 (1 shared) |
| Title3: | Nissar Trophy |
| Title3wins: | 1 |
| Title4wins: | 8 |
| Title5wins: | 4 |
| Title6wins: | 1 |
The Mumbai cricket team, formerly known as the Bombay Cricket Team, is a cricket team which represents Mumbai in Indian domestic cricket. It is governed by Mumbai Cricket Association. Its home ground is Wankhede Stadium in Churchgate.[1]
The team also plays its home matches at Bandra Kurla Complex Ground and Brabourne Stadium. The team comes under the West Zone designation. It was formerly known as the Bombay cricket team, but changed its name when the city was renamed from Bombay to Mumbai.[2]
Mumbai is the most successful team in the history of Ranji Trophy, India's premier domestic cricket competition, with 42 titles. Its most recent title was in 2023–24. It also has won 14 (and 1 shared) Irani Cups.
Mumbai has produced some of the greatest Indian cricketers of all time, such as Sachin Tendulkar, Sunil Gavaskar, Rohit Sharma, Vijay Merchant, Polly Umrigar, and Dilip Vengsarkar.[3] [4]
The first recorded cricket match in Mumbai took place between a Military XI and an Island XI in 1797. The affluent Parsis of Mumbai founded the short-lived Orient Cricket Club in 1848. In 1850, the Young Zoroastrian Club, which exists to this day was founded. In 1866, the Bombay Union Hindu Club, a forerunner of the Hindu Gymkhana was founded. In 1884, Sir Dorabji Tata formed the Parsi Gymkhana and helped an all-Parsi team tour England in 1886. Despite a cricketing failure, the Parsis organised another tour of England in 1888.
In 1889-90, an English team managed by George Vernon and captained by Lord Hawke played against the Bombay Gymkhana and the Parsis at the Gymkhana Ground during their tour of Ceylon and India. The Parsis pulled off a famous victory, a first for an Indian team against English opposition.[5]
The Bombay Tournament, patronised by the Governor of Bombay Lord Harris, was played between the Parsis and Europeans, alternately in Bombay and Poona from 1892 to 1906. The 1892 match was the first First-class cricket match to be played in India. In 1906, Hindus played Parsis to create the Bombay Triangular. in 1912, the Muslims of the Mohammeden Gymkhana were invited to play and create the famous Bombay Quadrangular. In 1937, a fifth team, called The Rest, was admitted to the tournament. It comprised Buddhists, Jews, and Indian Christians. In 1946 that the Pentangular tournament was abandoned by the Board of Control for Cricket in India and replaced by a zonal competition. The Ranji Trophy, in which regional teams from all over India competed, became the pre-eminent Indian cricket competition.
The Quadrangular Committee, consisting of the four Gymkhanas in Bombay, met to 6 August 1928 to discuss the formation of a single governing entity for cricket in the Bombay Presidency outside Sind.[6] On 6 October 1928, 'The Bombay Presidency (Proper) Cricket Association' was adopted as the name of the governing body and clubs began to be enrolled as members. On 16 August 1934, the Gujarat Cricket Association and the Maharashtra Cricket Association approached the Board of Control for Cricket in India for direct affiliation, separating from The Bombay Presidency (Proper) Cricket Association. The rump organisation then adopted the name Bombay Cricket Association, with its jurisdiction limited to the 'Greater Bombay and Thana District'.
Bombay won the first-ever Ranji Trophy competition in 1934–35, with Vijay Merchant starring in the final against Northern India. They retained title the following season with victory over Madras in the final. Bombay quickly showed themselves to be one of the strongest teams in the competition with 7 victories in the first 20 seasons of the Ranji Trophy. When playing Maharashtra in a semi-final of the 1948–49 season at Pune, Mumbai became the first and only team in first-class history to score over 600 runs in both innings of the same match – 651 and 714.[7]
However, it was only after this period of success that their dominance was at its zenith. Bombay won 20 out of 22 titles from 1955–56 to 1976–77, including 15 consecutive titles from 1958–59 to 1972–73. Bombay continued to regularly reach the Ranji Trophy final up to the mid-1980s.
The latter half of the 1980s was Bombay's least successful period with no final appearances in 5 consecutive seasons.
However, they were able to regain some of their former glory from the 1990s onwards winning an additional 6 Ranji Trophies from 1993–94 to 2003–04.
In 2006–07, Mumbai won their 37th Ranji Trophy with victory over Bengal in the final at Wankhede Stadium. This win was particularly memorable as the team had recovered from the setbacks of losing their first three games and is reduced to 0/5 in the semi-final against Baroda.
Mumbai's dominance of the Ranji Trophy has led to many consecutive appearances in the Irani Trophy with much success including 15 wins from 29 appearances. However, they have failed to beat Rest of India since the 1997–98 Irani Cup.
See main article: Brabourne Stadium. The Governor of Bombay Lord Brabourne granted the Cricket Club of India land to build a new stadium.[8] The foundation stone was laid by Lord Brabourne on 22 May 1936.[9] The first match was played on the incomplete ground in October 1937 between the CCI and the Spencer Cup XI. The ground was opened on 7 December 1937 by Roger Lumley, Governor of Bombay. The ground was named after Brabourne at the suggestion of the Maharaja of Patiala.[10]
The Mumbai cricket team played its home matches at the Brabourne Stadium until 1971, when a dispute between CCI president Vijay Merchant and the Bombay Cricket Association over the allocation of seats for England's 1972-73 tour of India prompted the construction of the Wankhede Stadium.[11]
See main article: Wankhede Stadium. The Mumbai cricket team has played at the Wankhede Stadium since its construction in 1974. In the 1984–85 Ranji Trophy match against Baroda, Mumbai's Ravi Shastri hit six sixes in an over off Tilak Raj, en-route to the fastest double century in first-class cricket at the time.[12] [13]
See main article: Bandra Kurla Complex Ground. The Mumbai Cricket Association built the MCA Recreation Centre at the Bandra Kurla Complex Ground in 2007. It houses an indoor cricket school and a cricket ground where Ranji Trophy matches are played.[14]
See main article: List of Mumbai cricketers.
The team is known for its batting and spin bowling and has produced many of the Indian cricket team's top batsmen over the years. Players who have appeared in the national team include:
Players with international caps are listed in bold.
| Name | Birth date | Batting style | Bowling style | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Batters | |||||
| Ajinkya Rahane | 6 June 1988 | Right-handed | Captain Plays for Chennai Super Kings in IPL | ||
| 23 December 1995 | Right-handed | ||||
| 7 April 1999 | Right-handed | ||||
| Sarfaraz Khan | 22 October 1997 | Right-handed | |||
| Suved Parkar | 6 April 2001 | Right-handed | |||
| Angkrish Raghuvanshi | 5 June 2005 | Right-handed | Plays for Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL | ||
| Prithvi Shaw | 9 November 1999 | Right-handed | Plays for Delhi Capitals in IPL | ||
| Yashasvi Jaiswal | 28 December 2001 | Right-handed | Plays for Rajasthan Royals in IPL | ||
| Suryakumar Yadav | 14 September 1990 | Right-handed | Plays for Mumbai Indians in IPL | ||
| Rohit Sharma | 30 April 1987 | Right-handed | Plays for Mumbai Indians in IPL | ||
| All-Rounders | |||||
| Shivam Dube | 26 June 1993 | Left-handed | Vice-captain Plays for Chennai Super Kings in IPL | ||
| Shardul Thakur | 16 October 1991 | Right-handed | Plays for Chennai Super Kings in IPL | ||
| 26 September 2000 | Left-handed | ||||
| Wicket-keepers | |||||
| Prasad Pawar | 31 January 1995 | Right-handed | |||
| 20 October 1997 | Right-handed | ||||
| Spin Bowlers | |||||
| 13 March 1997 | Left-handed | Plays for Mumbai Indians in IPL | |||
| 16 October 1998 | Right-handed | Plays for Rajasthan Royals in IPL | |||
| Pace Bowlers | |||||
| 18 November 1992 | Right-handed | ||||
| Tushar Deshpande | 15 May 1995 | Right-handed | Plays for Chennai Super Kings in IPL | ||
| 30 January 1993 | Left-handed | ||||
| Dhawal Kulkarni | 10 December 1988 | Right-handed | |||
Updated as on 22 March 2024
Coach and support staff in Mumbai men's cricket team are shown below:
1. Raju Kulkarni – Chairman2. Sanjay Patil3. Ravindra Thaker4. Jeetendra Thackeray 5. Kiran Powar[18]
Coach and support staff in Mumbai women's cricket team are shown below: