The 40th edition of the Duleep Trophy championship commences with two matches at Nagpur and Vijayawada to be played from Thursday. The national level competition, the brainchild of the then BCCI president MA Chidambaram, was inaugurated in the 1961-62 season to strengthen the domestic cricket base and to help bring back the crowds, with playing standards in the country's premier national tournament, the Ranji Trophy having stagnated. The Duleep Trophy championship is certainly more glamorous with the cream of Indian cricketers from the five zones taking part. At least it was like that for long. In recent years, however many leading cricketers have been unable - or unwilling - to compete, leading to the competition being devalued. But the tournament has always retained its prestige and importance and even today an outstanding performance could well be the key to higher honours.

Quite often in the past, leading cricketers have not been in a position to participate in the Duleep Trophy, thanks to an overcrowded international calendar. This time however there are no international engagements for the duration of the Duleep Trophy, which is from January 4 to February 4. However, with national coach John Wright asking zonal selectors not to include leading players in the sides - he prefers that they should get enough rest for the series of Tests and one day internationals against Australia which is touring the country for about six weeks from mid February - the tournament will again be shorn of glamour. But not all the top cricketers will be pulling out and with the cream of the country's youthful talent being on view, this year's competition will retain its prestige and importance. What is even more significant is the fact that Wright has indicated that he will watch some of the matches.

The dominant teams over the four decades have been West Zone, South Zone and North Zone who have won the trophy 14, 11 and 13 times respectively. Central Zone have established their claims on four occasions. On three occasions, the trophy has been shared as the first innings have not been completed. East Zone remains the only team yet to win the trophy. There is no reason to doubt that the fancied teams will again dominate in this year's competition.

Holders North Zone, for one have a formidable outfit on hand to defend the trophy. Punjab's Vikram Rathour again leads the side and he has with him many of the stalwarts who shaped last season's triumph. On duty are Vijay Dahiya, Virender Shewag, Rahul Sanghvi, Aashish Nehra, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Mongia, Sharandeep Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Reetinder Singh Sodhi, Gagandeep Singh, Rajiv Nayyar and Parender Sharma. That sort of line up has everything going for them - strong in batting and variety in bowling. Most of them have already run into top form during the Ranji Trophy games and sides opposing North Zone could clearly have a task on their hands, particularly in curbing their run hungry batsmen.

The chances of West Zone doing well would hinge on the number of games Sachin Tendulkar and Ajit Agarkar play. The two have not been included in the original list of players, but indications are that Tendulkar and Agarkar might represent the zone in one or two of the four matches that each team plays in the month long competition. It is also not clear whether Zaheer Khan will play all the matches, though he is in the squad. If the three Indian stars play a limited role, then the onus will be on the established players like skipper Nayan Mongia, Hrishikesh Kanitkar, Jacob Martin, Wasim Jaffer, Sitanshu Kotak, Abhijit Kale, Connor Williams, Iqbal Siddiqui, Santosh Saxena, Romesh Powar and Sairaj Bahutule to come good. Like North Zone, West Zone too are equally strong in batting and bowling and if they register another triumph, it will not be a major surprise.

Like West Zone, South Zone too are likely to suffer from the fact that some of the leading players are unlikely to participate. Rahul Dravid, the captain, Javagal Srinath and Anil Kumble will definitely not play all the matches as a result of requests made by Wright and Indian team physio Andrew Leipus that they rest or tend to their injuries. One does not know at the moment whether other Indian players like Sunil Joshi, Venkatesh Prasad and Sadagopan Ramesh will also be available for all the matches. Probably aware of this, the selectors picked an unusually large squad - 19 players and five standbyes. But the absence of the star cricketers will certainly hinder South Zone's chances of regaining the trophy though they still have a good side with players of the calibre of VVS Laxman, S Sriram, Hemang Badani, Robin Singh, VST Naidu, Dodda Ganesh, Thiru Kumaran, Vijay Bhardwaj and Aashish Kapoor in the ranks.

Central Zone, despite not having any real stars, must fancy their chances, especially if the `big three' are affected by the absence of the leading cricketers. They are led by Amay Khurasia who has had a very good domestic run so far. But then the side has other players too who have been among the runs and wickets this season. Cricketers like Md Kaif, Gagan Khoda, Amit Pagnis, JP Yadav, D Bundela, Raja Ali, Murali Kartik, Narendra Hirwani, AW Zaidi and Salabh Srivastava give the side the ideal blend of youth and experience. Indeed, in batting and bowling, Central Zone look a balanced side and one would not be surprised if they pull off a surprise.

The East Zone team has not yet been announced. They do not get into action till the second round of matches which commence on January 11. The last round of East Zone Ranji Trophy league matches start today and it is expected that the zonal team will be announced at the weekend. Again much would depend on whether Sourav Ganguly will play. But whatever the final composition of the side, Orissa is bound to have a fair share of players, as befitting their position as the top team in the zone at the moment. In fact, just the other day, they defeated Bengal for the first time in 43 years of participation in the national competition. Contenders from the state include Sanjay Raul, Shiv Sundar Das, P Jaichandra, A Barick, S Satpathy, RR Parida and Debasish Mohanty. Other players likely to be in the East Zone team are Sukhbinder Singh, PK Das, R Borah, GD Dutta and Sunil Subramaniam (Assam), Utpal Chatterjee, SS Lahiri, Saba Karim, Rohan Gavaskar, Srikant Kalyani, Devang Gandhi (Bengal) and Sunil Kumar (Bihar). But whatever the final composition of the side, it does not look like a team that can bring the trophy East for the first time.

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