The Cooch Behar Trophy in Indian domestic cricket is contested in which age group?

The correct answer is B, Ranjitsinhji. Kumar Shri Ranjitsinhji, the Jam Saheb of Nawanagar, played for Sussex and for England at the end of the nineteenth century and was among the first cricketers of Indian birth to be ranked with the greatest batsmen of his time. When the Board started a national first-class championship in 1934-35 it named the competition after him, and the trophy itself was presented by Bhupinder Singh, the Maharaja of Patiala. Option A, Duleepsinhji, was his nephew and also played for Sussex and England; the Duleep Trophy, begun in 1961-62, carries his name, and the two princes are the commonest pair to be confused here. Option C, Vijay Merchant, gives his name to the under-16 championship. Option D, C. K. Nayudu, captained India in her first Test match in 1932 and gives his name to the under-23 championship.

The correct answer is B, 1934-35. The Board of Control for Cricket in India set up a national first-class championship in 1934 and the first season was played in 1934-35, with Bombay winning the title. Option A, 1928-29, is the year the Board itself was founded, in 1928, and is the natural wrong answer for anyone who remembers one date and uses it for the other. Option C, 1947-48, is the season after independence and has no special link with the trophy. Option D, 1959-60, is the year the Irani Cup was started, to mark twenty-five years of the Ranji Trophy, which is itself a useful cross-check: 1934-35 plus twenty-five seasons lands on 1959-60. Keep the sequence in order: the Board in 1928, the Ranji Trophy in 1934-35, the Irani Cup in 1959-60 and the Duleep Trophy in 1961-62.

The correct answer is B, the Ranji Trophy champion and a Rest of India side. The Irani Cup is a single first-class match in which the team that has just won the Ranji Trophy meets a Rest of India eleven drawn from all the other state teams, and a good performance in it has long been treated as a step towards national selection. It was begun in 1959-60 to mark twenty-five years of the Ranji Trophy and is named after Z. R. Irani, a patron of the Board. Option A describes the zonal format in which the Duleep Trophy was originally played, between North, South, East, West and Central Zone. Option C names the selected sides used in the Duleep Trophy in later years. Option D is invented; the winners of the one-day and Twenty20 championships do not meet each other, as the two tournaments stand separately.

The correct answer is C, the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Begun in 2006-07, soon after Twenty20 became an international format, it is the championship in which the state teams play the twenty-over game, and it is named after Syed Mushtaq Ali of Indore, who was the first Indian to score a Test century abroad. Option A, the Vijay Hazare Trophy, is the fifty-over one-day championship for the same state teams and began in 2002-03. Option B, the Deodhar Trophy, is also a one-day tournament, named after D. B. Deodhar and long played between zonal sides. Option D, the Duleep Trophy, is first-class cricket over several days. The set to memorise is three tiers for three formats: the Ranji Trophy for first-class cricket, the Vijay Hazare Trophy for fifty overs and the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy for Twenty20.

The correct answer is B, 2008. The Board of Control for Cricket in India announced the league in 2007 and the first season was played from April to June 2008, with Lalit Modi as the first chairman and commissioner and eight city franchises taking part. Option A, 2007, is the year of the announcement and also the year India won the first Twenty20 World Cup, which is why many candidates mark it; the announcement and the first season fall in different years, so the distinction matters. Option C, 2009, is the year of the second season, which was moved to South Africa because the general election in India was held at the same time. Option D, 2010, is the third season. The chain to remember is announcement in 2007, first season and Rajasthan Royals as champions in 2008, and South Africa in 2009.