The Bombay Quadrangular Becomes a National Event — 1912 Onwards

European clubs in Bombay had played the Parsis since the 1890s. Hindu and Muslim cricketers had long pressed for inclusion.

The Hindu Gymkhana joined in 1907; the Mohammedan Gymkhana in 1912. By 1913 the tournament had its full four-team round-robin format.

Cricket in Bombay had been organised on communal lines from the late nineteenth century. The Parsis had played the Europeans regularly from the 1890s. The Bombay Hindu Gymkhana entered the tournament in 1907, making it Triangular; the Mohammedan (later Islam) Gymkhana joined in 1912, making it the Bombay Quadrangular. From that year until 1936 — when a fifth team, 'The Rest', made it Pentangular — the Quadrangular was the leading regular event in Indian cricket. Through the 1910s it produced the first generation of Indian cricketing names: Palwankar Baloo and his brothers, the Parsi all-rounder Pheroze Palia's predecessors, the Hindu batsman D.B. Deodhar, and the legendary Maharaja of Patiala's protégés. Although communal in form, it was the practical training ground for the side that would eventually become India's first Test team in 1932.

“The Quadrangular was the great training ground of Indian Test cricket.”

The Quadrangular continued until 1946. By then it had become controversial on communal grounds — Gandhi himself eventually called for its abolition. It was the immediate ancestor of the Ranji Trophy (started 1934) and of the BCCI's national structure.