The Duleep Trophy is a domestic first-class cricket competition played in India between teams representing geographical zones of India. The competition is named after Kumar Shri Duleepsinhji of Nawanagar. The competition was started by the Board of Control for Cricket in India in the 1961–62 season. Five Indian zonal teams regularly take part in the Duleep Trophy – North Zone, South Zone, East Zone, West Zone and Central Zone. The original format was that the five teams played each other on a knock-out basis. From the 1993–94 season, the competition converted to a league format. From the 2003–04 season until 2008, the five original zonal teams competed along with a sixth guest team which was a touring foreign team. The first guest team was England A in 2003–04.
Since, the format has been replaced by the original 5-team knockout tournament.