The first game of cricket was played in India by European sailors, who played the sport as a recreational activity in the first half of the 18th century. These sailors played cricket near their coastal settlements. The first recorded match in India was played between the British army and British settlers in 1751. The world's second-oldest cricket club,
Calcutta Cricket Club, was founded in 1792 in present-day Kolkata. The
Parsis were the first civilian community to accept cricket as a sport and play it in India. In 1848, they set up the
Oriental Cricket Club in present-day Mumbai. In 1850, they founded the Young Zoroastrian Cricket Club. In 1886, Hindus founded the
Hindu Gymkhana sports club. In 1912, an all-India cricket team visited England for the first time, and were sponsored and captained by the
Maharaja of Patiala. In 1926, two representatives of Calcutta Cricket Club traveled to London to attend meetings of the
Imperial Cricket Conference, the predecessor of the current
International Cricket Council. Although technically not an official representative of Indian cricket, they were allowed to attend by
Lord Harris, chairman of the conference. The outcome of the meeting was the MCC's decision to send a team that was led by
Arthur Gilligan, who had captained England in
The Ashes, to India.
Founding and early years (in the 1930s), former Indian cricketer, Indian cricket team's first captain in Test cricket|263x263px In a meeting with the
Maharaja of Patiala,
Bhupinder Singh, and others, Gilligan promised to press for its inclusion in the ICC if all of the game's promoters in the country united to establish a single controlling body. An assurance was givenand on 21 November 1927 a meeting was held in
Delhi, which was attended by delegates from
Patiala, Delhi,
United Provinces of Agra and Oudh,
Rajputana,
Alwar,
Bhopal,
Gwalior,
Baroda,
Kathiawar,
Central Provinces and Berar,
Sindh and
Punjab. The delegates agreed to create a board for control of cricket in India. On 10 December 1927, a unanimous decision to form a provisional board of control was taken, and the BCCI was formed in December 1928.
R. E. Grant Govan was elected as its first president and Anthony de Mello was secretary. In 1926, the BCCI joined the Imperial Cricket Council, then the governing body for international cricket. In 1936, the BCCI started India's premier first-class cricket championship the
Ranji Trophy, which was named after the first Indian person who played international cricket, the King of
Nawanagar state K.S. Ranjitsinhji, who played for England in international cricket. The
Mumbai cricket team is the most-successful team, winning 42 titles. In
1932, India played its maiden Test match under the captaincy of
C. K. Nayudu against England at
Lord's cricket ground in London. During
England's 1933-34 tour of India, on 17 December 1933,
Lala Amarnath became the first Indian batsman to score a test century, scoring 118 on his debut, at
Bombay Gymkhana. In
1967–68, India won its first-ever Test cricket series outside Asia. Previously it had defeated
Pakistan,
New Zealand and
England, and won series in
India.
1945–1987 In 1952, the England team
toured India; it was their first tour of India after its
Independence.
Nigel Howard was the captain of touring team. The former India captain Vijaya Ananda Gajapathi Raju, also known as
Vizzy, was the BCCI president in the 1960s. In 1975, the BCCI paid per match to the test cricketers. Banks, Indian railways and private enterprises would recruit players. The board appointed
Ajit Wadekar captain
in 1971, the Indian team won their first test series against England on English soil, and against
the West Indies,
Sunil Gavaskar made his test debut in latter series. India won the
1983 Cricket World Cup, defeating the defending champions the
West Indies by 43 runs in the
final at Lord's. India also won the
World Championship of Cricket in 1985, defeating Pakistan by eight wickets in the
final at
Melbourne Cricket Ground. The BCCI hosted the
1987 World Cup; it was the first time the event was organised outside England.
1987–2000 Through the 1980s and early 1990s, BCCI paid per match to terrestrial television network
Doordarshan to broadcast the Indian cricket team's matches. It hosted the ICC Cricket World Cup competitions in
1987 and
1996. After the proposal succeeded, the BCCI sold television broadcast rights for the first time;
South African Broadcasting Corporation purchased the rights to broadcast the
South African cricket tour of India, South Africa's first official international tour after the
21-year boycott from international cricket. During this time, South Africa joined the "Asian bloc" of the BCCI and its South-Asian neighbours. In 1993, the BCCI signed a deal with
TransWorld International (TWI), which would pay the BCCI to televise
England's tour of India on satellite television and Doordarshan would pay TWI for the rights to televise the matches in India. The
1993 Hero Cup was broadcast on
Star TV, which made it the first cricket series to be broadcast on satellite television in India and broke the monopoly of Doordarshan. BCCI, in a joint bid with Pakistan and Sri Lanka, won the rights to host the
1996 Cricket World Cup, defeating the England-and-Australia bloc. The tournament was a commercial success, With Dalmiya at the head of the ICC, the BCCI led a successful proposal to grant
Test status to
Bangladesh in 1999–2000.
21st century Since 2000, the BCCI has hosted and organised multiple ICC cricket World Cups competitions that is men's
2011 ODI world cup, the
2023 ODI world cup, the
2016 T20 world cup, the
2006 ICC Champions Trophy and
2021 T20 world cups;
2013,
2016 Women's Cricket world cups. In 2007, the BCCI established the
Indian Premier League (IPL), an annual, franchise-based,
Twenty20 cricket league. In 2008, the BCCI sold the ownership rights of eight city-based franchises to corporate groups and Bollywood celebrities in a closed auction for a total of 723.49 million; it also sold the tournament's global media rights for 10 years to
World Sport Group for 1.03 billion. The media deal was re-negotiated the following year to $1.6 billion. In 2010, the BCCI expanded the league to 10 teams, selling two new franchises for a total of 703 million. Due to the IPL's commercial success, similarly styled Twenty20 leagues appeared around the world, as did franchise-based leagues in other sports in India. A rebel league,
Indian Cricket League (ICL) was owned and operated by
Essel Group. BCCI banned Indian players who played in the ICL, including
Hemang Badani,
Dinesh Mongia,
Rohan Gavaskar and
Ambati Rayudu, but later gave amnesty to these players and lifted theirs bans after they ended their ties with the ICL. The BCCI blacklisted Essel Group company
Zee Entertainment Enterprises due to this league, and expelled it from the BCCI in 2021. Zee was prohibited from buying BCCI's media rights. In 2006, the BCCI sold the Indian cricket team's media rights to Zee for the 2006-11 period but after Essel Group initiated the ICL, the BCCI terminated this deal. Zee fought a long legal battle with the BCCI; on 12 March 2018, a tribunal headed by three judges found BCCI guilty and asked them to pay Zee for losses. The tribunal found blacklisting of Zee by BCCI was illegal and said in judgement; "To us it seems that BCCI was exploiting its dominating position in respect of game of cricket in India" and also added Zee and its affiliated companies to the blacklist and banning them from participating in the BCCI bidding process was illegal. In January 2010, the
Pakistan Cricket Board criticized the BCCI and organizers of the
IPL over the absence of Pakistani players, after the Pakistani cricketers were not selected in auctions from the second season in 2009 and third season in 2010. Media reports attributed the continued absence of Pakistani players to security concerns and geopolitical tensions following the
November 2008 terror attacks in
Mumbai, which were carried out by
Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based militant group. The BCCI does not allow its contracted, non-contracted, national and domestic players to participate in any cricket leagues abroad. Only players who have retired from all formats of Indian cricket can take part in foreign leagues. Players such as
Adam Gilchrist have questioned this policy. Indian players such as
Suresh Raina and
Robin Uthappa have urged the board to allow non-contracted players like them to participate in foreign leagues.
India Cements-
Chennai Super Kings owner and former president
N. Srinivasan was criticised for his alleged biased behaviour towards some state boards by awarding them ODI, Test and T20I matches while in office, possibly in violation of the board's rotation policy on venues. During Srinivasan's tenure as treasurer in BCCI before he became the president, the board constitution was amended to facilitate him to buy an IPL franchise, through his company India Cements during the 2008 IPL team auction (an event held where 8 teams was sold through an open auction). Srinivasan courted further controversy for appointing India national side's and Chennai Super Kings' (CSK) captain
Mahendra Singh Dhoni as a vice-president of India Cements. He also interfered in national team's selection, in 2012 ex-BCCI selector
Mohinder Amarnath revealed that selectors wanted to sack Dhoni from skipper post, after India lost 8 test in a row, including "disastrous series in Australia", they wanted to replace him, it was a unanimous decision by selectors, but Srinivasan didn't allow it to happen. Srinivasan's son-in-law
Gurunath Meiyappan, who was team principal of CSK, was arrested for involvement in Spot-fixing and betting. Then unrecognised state association by BCCI, the
Bihar Cricket Association, filed a petition against it for mismanagement and conflict of interest in its investigation of
2013 IPL corruption scandal. In 2013, Mumbai police arrested the Indian cricket team's regular player
S. Sreesanth, other players and IPL team owners of Chennai Super Kings and
Rajasthan Royals for their dealings with the illegal betting industry. In 2015,
Supreme Court of India appointed a committee to make reforms in BCCI, headed by justice
R. M. Lodha, the
Lodha Committee suspended CSK from the IPL for two years and suspended Meiyappan from cricket activities for life but many other suggested were not implemented by the BCCI and as a result the Supreme Court removed BCCI officials. In 2013,
Rupa Gurunath—N Shrinivasan's daughter and Gurunath Meiyappan's wife—who was then president of
Tamil Nadu Cricket Association, was found guilty of conflict of interest by the BCCI's ethics officer Justice
D. K. Jain. In 2015, the Supreme Court of India barred Srinivasan from the BCCI for contesting elections due to his conflict of interests; the court also struck down the amendments of BCCI constitution that had allowed him to own and operate an IPL team. However he still owns the CSK franchise. In January 2015, Supreme court quashed BCCI's rule, which allowed its administrators to have financial interests in cash rich leagues such as Championship league, IPL etc. The court barred individuals including N. Shrinivasan from BCCI election, who have financial interests in events organised by BCCI. On 30 January 2017, The Supreme Court of India nominated a four-member 'Committee of Administrators' (COA) composed of
Vinod Rai,
Ramachandra Guha,
Vikram Limaye and
Diana Edulji to administer the BCCI to implement Lodha Committee's reforms. Vinod Rai, a retired civil servant and the former
Comptroller and Auditor General of India, led the committee, which administered the board until elections could be conducted. In 2014, the BCCI, Cricket Australia and the England and Wales Cricket Board seized control of several of the ICC's key committees to form the "
Big Three". The foundation of the "Big Three" would result in a complete remodelling of world cricket, with India, England, and Australia now commanding most of cricket's revenue for the foreseeable future. In May 2017, the
Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) sent a legal notice and a compensation claim of US$60 million to the BCCI after bilateral series agreed through a 2014 Memorandum of Understanding did not take place, six of which were scheduled between 2015 and 2023. The ICC Dispute Resolution Committee conducted a three-day hearing and concluded that the agreement was not binding and that the PCB’s compensation claim was unproven, ruling in favor of the BCCI. In 2019, the BCCI recognised retired players' union, the Indian Cricketers' Association (ICA), which was formed after the Supreme court appointed Lodha Committee's recommendation to form an independent organisation for welfare of nation's players. The board also includes this union's one person as "ICA representative" in BCCI and IPL's apex governing council. In 2021 BCCI sacked
Virat Kohli from ODI captaincy, then President Ganguly told media that the BCCI asked him to remain captain but Kohli was not interested. After which Kohli took a press conference and contradicted him (Ganguly), revealing that BCCI did not ask him to remain captain. In February 2023, in a sting operation of
Zee News, then chief national selector
Chetan Sharma, made shocking revelations, accusing Kohli of lying and in fact president Ganguly had told him to remain as captain, in a meeting in front of all the selectors. According to Sharma, Virat Kohli was considering himself bigger than BCCI and wanted to teach a lesson to the president of the BCCI. He also revealed that after Kohli resigned from T20 captaincy, BCCI decided to sack him from ODI captaincy as well because they did not want two separate captains for limited overs format. On 14 February 2022, it laid foundation stone for new
National Cricket Academy (NCA) at
Bengaluru, which will replace old NCA located near
M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru. ==National teams==