Arthur Crabtree wrote:Never heard of Vidarbha. Internet tells, me it isn't actually a state, but a part of Maharashtra. Main city is Nagpur.
The Ranji Trophy predates the creation of modern India, and was contested originally between the provinces/presidencies of the old British Raj, so the original teams do not conform to the modern day state system. The British Raj is often represented as encompassing the whole of India, but this is not true - the crown only directly ruled (I think) 12 provinces of India which themselves do not have exact modern day equivalents (Bombay Presidency for instance included parts of Pakistan's Sindh province), with the rest nominally independent and ruled by locals under a system known as the princely states, so vast parts of the country were never included in the original first class setup.
Maharashtra was not a province of the Raj, but it did have an original side (named Maharasthra) courtesy of the fact that the summer capital moved to Pune, which is a centre of Maharti language/culture, and movements to create the state were very pronounced at the time, hence I guess they adopted the name before the state existed. Mumbai had a side as provincal capital, and Nagpur had a side because it was the capital of Central Province.... so historically, Maharashtra had three Ranji sides.
While Nagpur is in Maharashtra, I think they see themselves as cultural distinct from them, and combined with the fact they were seperate regions in the Raj days, I would guess that in anticipation of being seperated from the rest of Maharashtra after independence, the Vidarbha team rebranded itself and continued as the possible new representation for the region, but a couple of years later it was absorbed into the state. I know now that the region has campaigned to form its own.
Either way, Nagpur is an emerging cricket centre nowadays. Its widely accepted by players and officials that the stadium there is one of, if not the, best in the world for its facilties.