In the beginning, there were 27 teams in the fray. The figure was down to 15 when it came to the Super League. As the knock out stage commenced, the figure was further whittled down to six. And now, as this season's Ranji Trophy championship draws to a close, only the four semifinalists remain in the contest. All the four - Mumbai, Tamil Nadu, Hyderabad and Karnataka - are `founding fathers' as they have been participating in the National competition since the inaugural year of 1934-35. A trip down memory lane recounts how these teams, all of which have won the trophy, have fared in the tournament and in the process helped shape the destiny of Indian cricket. The first of four articles deals with Mumbai.

Mumbai's victory in the inaugural year of 1934-35 has somehow been symbolic. Simply put, they have dominated the National competition like no team has ever done. They have won the title 33 times in 65 years. The next best is Delhi and Karnataka, each with six championships. In fact, in the first 51 years of the competition, Mumbai won the Ranji Trophy 30 times. This included a world record run of 15 successive triumphs from 1958-59 to 1972-73. Mumbai at their peak would normally provide five or six players in the Indian team and around eight in a touring squad of 16. It used to be said that Mumbai cricket was Indian cricket and while this may not necessarily be so today - it has won the trophy only thrice in the last 13 years - it still ranks among the leading sides and possesses in Sachin Tendulkar, the best batsman in the world.

Indeed, among all the qualities that has made Bombay (as it has been known till the change in the name came about a few years ago) a giant in Indian cricket, it is the awesome batting strength that is the foremost. Some of the tallest totals, the highest individual scores and mind boggling partnerships have been the result of the Bombay school of batting. From this school, which has taught budding youngsters that a century should only be an appetiser, that patience is a paramount virtue while at the crease, have graduated cricketers like Vijay Merchant, Rusi Modi, Polly Umrigar, Gulabrai Ramchand, Bapu Nadkarni, Dilip Sardesai, Ashok Mankad, Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip Vengsarkar, Ravi Shastri, Sandip Patil, Sanjay Manjrekar, Vinod Kambli and Sachin Tendulkar. Take the overall Ranji Trophy statistics - aggregates, averages and partnerships - and you will find these names figure prominently in the list.

After winning the first ever championship, Bombay retained the trophy in 1935-36. That remained Bombay's only triumphs in the thirties but as the batting of Merchant and Modi flowered, Bombay added three more victories in the forties, even though there was strong opposition like Holkar and Baroda. In the fifties however the gap between Bombay and the other teams widened. Holkar became Madhya Bharat and then Madhya Pradesh, Baroda following the retirement of Vijay Hazare were no longer a force to reckon with, some other teams flattered only to deceive and all this meant that Bombay was the headquarters of Indian cricket in more ways than one. Triumphs in 1951-52, 1953-54, 1955-56 and 1956-57 confirmed the fact that Bombay were the team of the fifties. But all this was only the precursor of the glorious era of Bombay cricket.

In 1958-59, Bombay regained the trophy and held on to it will 1972-73. This was a truly remarkable run but what even more significant was the emphatic manner in which Bombay kept winning. Moreover, they were not affected by the fact that on many occasions the side was not even at full strength, because the leading players were away on national duty. Indeed this was the time it was said that if Bombay fielded two teams, it was likely that they would contest the final! The batting of Umrigar, Ramchand, Wadekar, Sardesai, Nadkarni, Mankad and Gavaskar and the bowling of Ramakant Desai, Nadkarni, Padmakar Shivalkar and Baloo Gupte highlighted the 15-year unbroken run.

Karnataka ended their dominance at Bangalore in 1973-74 but Bombay bounced back with three successive triumphs from 1974-75. In the last two decades however the Ranji Trophy has really gone around - from Delhi, Punjab and Haryana in the North to Hyderabad, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu in the South to Bengal in the East. But even as the great stars have retired, Bombay have found the players to help them win the trophy. Shaking off the stiff challenge posed by the other teams, Bombay have had their share of the cup over the last two decades - in 1980-81, 1983-84, 1984-85, 1993-94, 1994-95 and 1996-97. And given the manner they have performed this season, they must be favourites even in the strong remaining field. In any case, Bombay's dominance is unparalleled in the history of national competitions anywhere in the world and is part of cricketing folklore.

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