What is the Vijay Hazare Trophy? Check Out the List of Past Winners

The Vijay Hazare Trophy replaced the Ranji One Day Trophy in 2007. It is an annual domestic cricket tournament held by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in the 50-over format. Teams from states and union territories, like those in the Ranji Trophy, participate. Initially, it was played at the zonal level, but since 2002–03, it has been a national event. The tournament has been named after Vijay Hazare, former cricketer and captain who led India in 14 matches from 1951 to 1953. He famously guided India to their first-ever Test match win 1951–52 in Madras, against England.

Before the 2018/19 edition, teams were sorted into three elite groups and one plate group. Two elite groups had nine teams each, while the third had ten. The plate group included nine new teams. Teams were grouped based on the average points they earned in the previous three seasons. In the current 2023–24 season, 38 teams are divided into five groups from A to E.

The Vijay Hazare Trophy 2023 ended on Saturday, December 16, when Haryana beat Rajasthan by 30 runs. Defending a total of 287, Haryana had to withstand a remarkable comeback from Rajasthan’s Abhijeet Tomar and Kunal Singh Rathore to secure the victory.

Vijay Hazare 2023 was a month-long tournament that showcased outstanding individual performances and record-breaking feats with both bat and ball. Arslan Khan from Chandigarh emerged as the leading run-scorer with 508 runs at an impressive average of 84.66, while Tamil Nadu’s Varun Chakravarthy topped the bowlers’ chart with 19 wickets.

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Teams Played in Vijay Hazare Trophy

Group A – Tripura, Sikkim, Saurashtra, Railways, Pondicherry, Odisha, Mumbai, and Kerala.

Group B – Vidarbha, Services, Meghalaya, Manipur, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Hyderabad, and Chhattisgarh.

Group C – Uttarakhand, Mizoram, Karnataka, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Delhi, Chandigarh, and Bihar.

Group D – Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, and Andhra Pradesh.

Group E – Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Nagaland, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Bengal, and Baroda.

All the teams in the group stage plays once – the five winners and the best-performing runner-up make it to the quarter-final stage. The four other runners-up take on one another in the preliminary quarter-finals. The two winners from the preliminary quarter-finals then join the remaining six teams in the quarter-finals.

In previous seasons, specifically from 2015–16 to 2017–18, the zonal groups were replaced by four groups of seven teams each.

Format of Vijay Hazare Trophy

Teams in each group play each other once during the League stage. The top two teams from each group progress to the next stage. After the group stage, there are three pre-quarter-finals, four quarter-finals, and two semi-finals. Finally, the teams that reach the final compete for the title.

Past Winners in Vijay Hazare Trophy

The tournament began in the 1993-94 season, with teams playing within their zones until 2001-02, without any finals. Playoff and finals were introduced in the 2004-05 season and have been a part of the tournament since then. In Vijay Hazare Trophy 2023-24, Haryana defeated Rajasthan by 30 runs in the final to win the title for the first time. Tamil Nadu is the most successful team with five titles.

Several of the current international Indian cricketers have played the tournament in the past. Virat Kohli was the highest run-scorer in the 2009 Vijay Hazare Trophy. Jasprit Bumrah was the leading wicket-taker in the 2016 edition of the tournament, while Mohammed Siraj bagged the most wickets in the 2018 edition.

List of Winners of Vijay Hazare Trophy