The British came to India with a purpose of trade and slowly started governing India and the sub-continent. The history of cricket in India revolves around this governance as the game was introduced to the locals by the East India Company which was set up by the British.
The major centers in India which were acquired by the East India Company for effective trade solutions in the southern frontier of the sub-continent were Madras (now Chennai), Bombay (now Mumbai) and Calcutta (now Kolkata). These places became the major cricket venues later on as the popularity of the game grew leaps and bounds. The earliest reference of a cricket match held in India is from 1721 when a group of English sailors from the East India Company played against each other at a place near Baroda (now Vadodara), Cambay.
It is known for sure that the Calcutta Cricket and Football Club was founded by 1792 and it is speculated that the club was established about a decade earlier. Tipoo Sultan, the then ruler of Mysore, founded another club in 1799 at Seringapatam in southern India. But officially, the year 1864 marked the beginning of first-class cricket in India. The very first match was held between Calcutta and Madras. Later in 1877, the Bombay Presidency match was held for the first time. As time went by, these matches evolved into the Bombay Triangular matches and later on into the Bombay Quadrangular matches.
In 1892-93, these Bombay Quadrangular matches attained the first-class status and are held till now on a regular basis. A few other matches were played in 1889-90 were played under the captaincy of George Vernon but they could not qualify to be first-class matches. By 1892-93, first-class matches had become quite a popular sport and regularly held. Two matches were played in the 1982-83 season between the Parsees and the Europeans, the first of which ended in a draw while the other one was won by the Parsees by three wickets.
Later in the same season, four other first-class matches were played between the English team against an “All India” team with the English team led by skipper Lord Hawke. What followed were regular fixtures between the Parsees team, the Hindus team and the European team that went on till the 1917-18 season. The Hindus cricket team was founded by the Hindu community in Bombay and joined the Bombay Tournament in 1906. All the three teams were formed in Bombay by a group of followers of the particular community and participated in the Presidency matches held in those times.
Some of the well known leading players of those early times included Ledger Hill, who scored 212 runs overall with a highest score of 132 runs. The top scorer Indian batsman was Nasarvanji Bapasola with a top score of 65 and overall score of 155 runs. John Hornsby was the most popular bowler in those times having taken 28 wickets and best bowling figures at 8 wickets for 40 runs. On the other hand, the most successful Indian bowler was Dinshaw Writer who took 19 dismissals and achieved best bowling figures of 8 wickets for 35 runs.