Uttar Pradesh cricket team

The Uttar Pradesh cricket team is a cricket team which is based in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The team competes in the Ranji Trophy and won the tournament in 2005-06. They have only won 1 Ranji Trophy and have been runner-up twice. Young talents such as Mohammad Kaif, Suresh Raina, Piyush Chawla, R. P. Singh and Praveen Kumar and have passed through Uttar Pradesh and gone on to represent India.

Competition history

The team was formed in 1934 under the name of "United Provinces". The team's best performance in the Ranji Trophy in their early years came in 1939-40 when they finished as runners-up. In the 1950-51 season, the team's name was changed to "Uttar Pradesh". [ [http://www.cricinfo.com/link_to_database/NATIONAL/IND/RANJI_HISTORICAL_NOTE.html Ranji Trophy - Historical Note] , from Cricinfo.]

Uttar Pradesh have not been strong in the Ranji Trophy cricket for any prolonged period in their history. Their only victory in the Ranji Trophy Elite Group was in the 2005-06 season. The Ranji Trophy win was one of the most spectacular comebacks in cricketing history, since at one point of time in the season Uttar Pradesh were on the brink of relegation. They have finished runner-up twice before, once in 1997-98 against a strong Karnataka side, and once in 1977-78 against the same team.They finished runners-up in the 2007-08 season, reprising a performance, similar to the one witnessed in the 2005-06 season, when they came back from the brink of relegation to win the championship. This time though, they lost to Delhi in the final. This season's stellar performers wereMohammad Kaif, their captain who finished as the season's 3rd highest run-getter, medium pacer Sudeep Tyagi,season's 2nd highest wicket taker and Praveen Kumar who took 8 wickets in the Ranji trophy final. [ [http://stats.cricinfo.com/ranjisuperleague/engine/records/batting/most_runs_career.html?id=3441;type=tournament Cricinfo - Records - Ranji Trophy Super League, 2007/08 - Most runs ] ]

Their best performance in the Ranji Trophy One Day Tournament came in 2004-05 when they were joint-winners with Tamil Nadu. In 2006 they won the Nissar Trophy, defeating Sialkot in Dharmasala. Their only appearance in the Irani Trophy came in the 2006-07 season in which they lost to the Rest of India team.

Famous players

* Mohammad Kaif
* Suresh Raina
* Piyush Chawla
* R. P. Singh
* Gopal Sharma
* Gyanendra Pandey
* Praveen Kumar
* Clarence Woolmer - father of Bob Woolmer

Current squad

"2006-07 Ranji Trophy Super League squad [ [http://www.cricinfo.com/India/content/squad/269127.html Cricinfo - Uttar Pradesh ] ] "
* Jyoti Yadav
* Tahir Abbas
* Amir Khan (wk)
* Utkarsh Chandra
* Praveen Gupta
* Mohammad Kaif
* Praveen Kumar
* Ratnesh Mishra
* Gyanendra Pandey
* Piyush Chawla
* Rohit Prakash
* Suresh Raina
* Ravikant Shukla
* Rizwan Shamshad
* Shivakant Shukla
* R. P. Singh
* Shalabh Srivastava
* Tanmay Srivastava
* Ali Hamid
* Ashish Zaidi
* Suraj P. Singh

References

I think shalabh srivastava has joined ICL so probably he is no more with UP ranji cricket squad's member