Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy

The Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy is a premier T20 domestic tournament in India. It was founded by the BCCI and was first introduced during the 2006-2007 season when Tamil Nadu emerged as the champions of the trophy.

Back in its inaugural season, Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy was an inter-state T20 Championship, played on a zonal basis. However, later the SMA trophy was renamed and relaunched as Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, named after a well-known Indian test cricketer. It started with 27 teams from Ranji’s trophy and now has 38 teams from different states of the country.

This page contains further information about the history, format and current squad of the SMA trophy.

1. Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy
2. Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy History
3. Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy Format
4. Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy Teams
5. SMA Trophy Winners List
6. SMAT Highest Team Score
7. SMA Trophy Lowest team score

Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy History

Over the years, a number of changes and additions are being done to Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. At first, it started as an Inter-State T20 Championship in the 2006-07 season. However later, the BCCI renamed and relaunched it as Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy with a new format.

At first, the winners and runners-up, both qualify for the knockout stage. But then, in 2012, the knockout stage was replaced by the Super League where the winners and runners-up are divided into two groups. And the champions of each group then, play against each other.

Later in 2015, the zonal system was removed and the teams played in 4 groups. Then, another change was made in 2016 with combined zonal teams instead of the zonal winners.

In 2018, nine new teams were being added to the SMA trophy and the zonal system was abolished and replaced with 5 groups. Here group winners and runners-up qualify for the Super League. And then, the winners of the Super League play in the final.

Below we’ve explained the current format of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2022.

Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy Format

Currently, Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy is played in a round-robin format, followed by a knockout stage. The 38 participating teams are divided into 5 Elite groups and one Plate group.

The Elite groups namely are as follows:

• A
• B
• C
• D
• E

Each Elite group has six teams, while the one Plate group has 8 teams. And each team from the group will face the other teams once. That means each team will play a total of 5 league matches. And the top-ranked teams from every group will make it to the knockout stage.

Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy Teams

Currently, 38 domestic teams, from all over India are participating in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2022. Out of these, Tamil Nadu, Baroda, Gujarat and Karnataka are the consistent teams since their inception year. While, Uttarakhand, Chandigarh, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram are among the newly added ones.
However, the highest number of record holders among players in the Hyderabad team. For example, most runs in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy made by Tanmay Agarwal.

SMA Trophy Winners List

SMAT Highest Team Score

Karnataka holds the record for the highest team total in SMA, which is 250 at the loss of 3 wickets. The team made this record in 2019 while playing against Services, under the captaincy of Manish Pandey.

SMA Trophy Lowest team score

During the 2009 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, Tripura made the record for scoring the lowest team total in the history of the SMA trophy. It scored 30 against Jharkhand at the loss of 10 wickets and 11.1 overs.