First First-Class Match in India — Parsis v Europeans at Bombay, 1892

Cricket in India dated to the East India Company in the eighteenth century but had been almost entirely an expatriate pastime. The Parsi community was the first Indian group to take it up seriously; the Parsi Cricket Club had been founded in 1848. The 1888 Parsi tour of England, led by Pestonji Kanga, established that Indian sides could compete with English county opposition.

Lord Harris arrived as Governor in 1890 and made cricket development a personal priority. The 1892 first-class match was the first product of that policy.

The annual Parsis v Europeans fixture had been played in Bombay since 1877. From 1892 it was put on a formal first-class footing, partly because of Lord Harris's encouragement as Governor (1890-95) and partly because of the standard of cricket reached after the 1888 Parsi tour of England. The 26 August 1892 match was the first to receive what would later be retrospectively called first-class status.

M.E. Pavri, the genuine fast bowler who had taken 170 wickets at 11.66 on the 1888 tour of England, opened the bowling for the Parsis. He was supported by P.D. Kanga and Dinshaw Writer. The Europeans batted first; the match ran two days and was drawn — the standard for early Bombay matches, which were time-limited and rarely produced positive results.

The more important development was structural. From 1907 the fixture became a triangular tournament with the Hindus added; from 1912 the Muslims joined to make it a Quadrangular; from 1937 a fifth team (the Rest, comprising Christians, Buddhists and Jews) made it the Pentangular. The competition ran until 1946 and, under Lord Harris's broader encouragement, produced almost every Indian cricketer of consequence before independence.

“Lord Harris took an interest in our cricket as no English Governor had done before, and the Parsi cricketers profited most.”

The Bombay Quadrangular (later Pentangular) was the principal Indian first-class competition until 1934, when the Ranji Trophy was founded with the support of Ranjitsinhji. Many of India's first Test cricketers — Vijay Hazare, Vinoo Mankad, the Nayudu brothers, the Parsi C.S. Nayudu — emerged through the Bombay tournament.