Cooch Behar Trophy Championship January 1, 2009

Grand finale of the Cooch Behar Trophy (Under-19 All India School Cricket Championship)

between finalists Gujarat and Jharkand

The Cooch Behar Trophy championship began its journey long ago. The credit goes to the Cricket Association of Bengal and JC Mukherjee, the then president of CAB and Pankaj Gupta, the then honorary secretary of the CAB, who in 1945 proposed to the Board of Control for Cricket in India to start a tournament exclusively for the school students on all India basis. And the BCCI immediately agreed to and assured for their support about this concept. His Highness the Maharaja of Cooch Behar, Jagaddipendra Narayan (who himself was a good cricketer and lead the Bengal Ranji team for many years and was runners up captain in 1943-44 Ranji Trophy final played in Bombay) donated a trophy for the tournament known as “Cooch Behar Trophy” with inscription “Presented by His Highness Maharaja Bhup Bahadur of Cooch Behar” and on the back ‘Maharaja Jitendra Narayan Challenge Cup – All India Schools Tournament’. Maharaja Jitendra Narayan was the father of Maharaja Jagaddipendra Narayan, the donor of the Trophy.
The CAB announced on 23 November 1945 that the championship would be held at Calcutta during the Christmas. At the inaugural tournament eight teams had sent their entries. They were Bombay, Bengal, Poona (now Pune), Sind (now in Pakistan), Madras, Bihar, Baroda and Hyderabad. The tournament was a unique and first of its kind being organised in India. Sind became the inaugural champion defeating Bombay by 135 runs. The entire cost of the tournament was borne by the CAB and after that the BCCI sanctioned the expenditure for each year to run the tournament.
For sometimes the tournament has to face certain difficulties, as in 1950-51 final was not played, reason was likely that school examinations were going then. But initiatives were taken to run the tournament smoothly. And in 1946-47 due to political turmoil the tournament was held in Delhi and again Sind was the champion defeating their former rival Bombay by 82 runs. But the sad partition of the country, Sind retained the Cooch Behar Trophy for good and never bothered to return for the same. Once again the sports loving Maharaja came to rescue and replaced the trophy with a new one, which is still given to the champion teams.
Some new pattern and rules were adopted for smooth running of the tournament. In 1952-53 zonal system was introduced instead of state teams. Teams have to play in zonal basis as knockout pattern. Winner of each zone will contest in final championship round. From 1987-88 series the age limit was determined as under-19 in place of studentship.
For the lack of keeping sufficient statistical records it is very difficult to trace out the detail scores of the matches played in the Cooch Behar Trophy Tournaments. From different newspapers and sports magazines, a few scores have been collected, like as the highest total scored by Hyderabad versus Madhya Pradesh is 711 runs in 1952-53 and the lowest being 13 scored by Orissa vs Bengal in 1968-69.