The Kanga Cricket League (officially the Dr. H. D. Kanga Memorial Cricket League) is a cricket competition in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

, India, inaugurated in 1948. It is named after Hormasji Kanga, who played 43

First class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

matches as an

all-rounder An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a handful of batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are consi ...

, and was also a

selector Selector may refer to: *Selector, electrical or mechanical component, a switch *''Selector'', music scheduling software for radio stations created by Radio Computing Services *Selector, of music, otherwise known as a disc jockey *Selector, a pers ...

for the

India national cricket team The India men's national cricket team, also known as Team India or the Men in Blue, represents India in men's international cricket. It is governed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), and is a List of International Cricket Cou ...

Origins

The Kanga League was founded in 1948, and is held in

between July and October, during the Indian

monsoon season The wet season (sometimes called the Rainy season) is the time of year when most of a region's average annual rainfall occurs. It is the time of year where the majority of a country's or region's annual precipitation occurs. Generally, the sea ...

. As such, the grounds are very unpredictable, and can often be very wet, meaning the ball can "stop, shoot, skid and swing - all in a day's play."

Shishir Hattangadi Shishir Shantaram Hattangadi (born 30 July 1961) is a former Indian first-class cricket, first-class cricketer who played for Bombay cricket team from 1981/82 to 1991/92. He worked as a selector for the Mumbai Cricket Association after retiremen ...

has remarked that "If a batsman scored 30 or 50 runs, it would be considered equivalent to an 80 or a 100."

Vijay Merchant Vijay Singh Madhavji Merchant , real name Vijay Madhav Thackersey (12 October 1911 – 27 October 1987) was an Indian cricketer. A right-hand batter and occasional right-arm medium pace bowler, Merchant played first-class cricket for Bombay c ...

has been suggested as the founder of the league, and the league was named after Bombay cricketer Hormasji Kanga. Kanga was the first Indian to score a

double century In cricket, a century is a score of 100 or more runs in a single innings by a batsman. The term is also included in "century partnership" which occurs when two batsmen add 100 runs to the team total when they are batting together. A century ...

in a

first-class match First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

. He also worked as the President of the Bombay Cricket Association and was the vice-president of the

Board of Control for Cricket in India The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is the national governing body for cricket in India. Its headquarters are situated at Cricket centre, Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. The BCCI is the richest governing body of cricket in the world ...

History

The league has featured many Indian

Test cricket Test cricket is a form of first-class cricket played at international level between teams representing full member countries of the International Cricket Council (ICC). A match consists of four innings (two per team) and is scheduled to last fo ...

ers, including

Buck Divecha Ramesh Vithaldas 'Buck' Divecha (18 October 1927 – 19 February 2003) was an Indian Test cricketer. Divecha was a right-arm bowler who bowled fast-medium or off-breaks, and a useful batsman. In 1942 while studying in Wilson College he was a ...

Dattu Phadkar Dattatraya Gajanan "Dattu" Phadkar (12 December 1925 – 17 March 1985) was an all-rounder who represented Indian cricket team, India in Test cricket. Phadkar was an attacking middle order batsman, a medium pace bowler who could swing the ball ...

and

Sunil Gavaskar Sunil Manohar Gavaskar (Marathi pronunciation: uniːl ɡaːʋəskəɾ ; born 10 July 1949), is an Indian cricket commentator and former cricketer who represented India and Bombay from 1971 to 1987. Gavaskar is acknowledged as one of the grea ...

. Aged 11,

Sachin Tendulkar Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar (; ; born 24 April 1973) is an Indian former international cricketer who captained the Indian national team. He is regarded as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket. He is the all time highest run-scor ...

appeared in the league representing John Bright Cricket Club, and in 1985–86, he played the whole season aged 12. Sachin's son

Arjun Tendulkar Arjun Sachin Tendulkar (born 24 September 1999) is an Indian cricketer from Mumbai, Maharashtra. He is son of former cricketer Sachin Tendulkar. He is a left-handed medium fast bowler and left-handed lower order batsman. He plays for Goa cricket ...

made his Kanga League debut aged 13 in 2013.

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

and

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film), ...

batsman

Madhav Apte Madhavrao Laxmanrao Apte ( 5 October 1932 – 23 September 2019) was an Indian cricketer who played in seven Test matches from 1952 to 1953. He was elected to the office of the president of the Cricket Club of India in 1989. He afterwar ...

played in every Kanga League between 1948 and 2002, and

wicket-keeper The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being watchful of the batsman and ready to take a catch, stump the batsman out and run out a batsman when occasion arises. Th ...

Mehli Irani Mehli Dinshaw Irani (26 June 1930 – 3 April 2021) was an Indian cricketer, who played as a left-handed batsman and wicket-keeper. Irani played in the Kanga Cricket League for over 50 years. He made one appearance for Bombay in the Ranji Troph ...

played in the Kanga League for 50 years, retiring at the age of 68.

Zaheer Khan Zaheer Khan (born 8 October 1978) is an Indian former professional cricketer who played all forms of the game for the Indian national team from 2000 till 2014. He is a fast-medium left-arm bowler. He was the second-most successful Indian pace ...

debuted in the 1996 Kanga League aged 18, and bowled 10 consecutive maiden overs in a match. In a Kanga League Division A match in November 2014,

Pardeep Sahu Pardeep Sahu (born 21 August 1985) is an Indian cricketer who plays for Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League. Life and career Since making his first-class debut in 2002 at the age of 17, Sahu made sporadic appearances for Haryana in dom ...

took all ten wickets in an innings, becoming the fourth bowler to do so in the league. The 2013 and 2014 Kanga Leagues were scheduled at the end of the monsoon season, but the league was moved back into the monsoon season in 2015.

Records

Vithal Patil Vithal Patil (30 June 1927 – 10 June 2014) was an Indian cricketer. He played two first-class matches for Mumbai between 1956 and 1958. He also played in the Kanga League The Kanga Cricket League (officially the Dr. H. D. Kanga Memo ...

holds the record for most wickets in the Kanga League, with 759 wickets for the Dadar Union Cricket Club between 1952 and 1984.

Aditya Tare Aditya Prakash Tare (born 7 November 1987) is an Indian cricketer. He is a wicketkeeper batsman who played for Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League and for Uttarakhand in domestic cricket. Tare made his first-class debut in 2009, and I ...

is the only batsman to have ever scored a

in a Kanga League match; Tare scored 201 in a 2013 match for Victory Cricket Club against Fort Vijay Cricket Club. In 2014, Neil Narvekar made 100 runs off 29 balls, the fastest

century A century is a period of 100 years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. A centennial or ...

in Kanga League history.

Competition Format

98 teams play in the Kanga League; they are divided into 7 groups of 14 teams.

Points System

The points systems for the Kanga League is as follows:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dr Hd Kanga Memorial Cricket League Cricket in Mumbai Indian domestic cricket competitions Sports leagues established in 1948