Plunket Shield is the name of cricket championship based in New Zealand, it is New Zealand’s domestic first-class championship which started in the year 1906. The championship has more than 110 years’ worth of history. Check Plunket Shield Winners List, Who Is The Most Successful Team?.
The Trophy is a shield designated by the governer-general of New Zealand in 1906 to the New Zealand Cricket Association to be allotted to the team with best performance. In the same year the Canterbury team was the only team to beat the MCC, Marylebone Cricket Club based in London, so with out a dought the shield was awarded to the Canterbury team.
The Plunket Shield trophy started when Auckland protested that they where the one who chould have recieved the shield as their team was superior but did not get the chance to beat th MCC first. Since than teams have emerged to defeat the holder of the shield and claim it for themselves.
the first ever team to challenge the Canterbury tem was Auckland and since then on Wellington, Otago, Hawke’s Bay(only lasted 2 matches ) also joined the challenge series matches till 1920-21. In 1921-22 the Cricket Association installed the round-robin format. Two new teams join the championship in 1950 and 1956 which were the Central Districts and Northern Districts respectively.
At current times there are only six first-class teams teams in the Plucket Shield Championship namely Canterbury cricket team, Auckland Aces, Northern District(Northern Knight till 2020-21), Wellington FireBirds, Otago Volts and Central Stags.
Plunket Shield Winners List (1921-2021)
| Team | First Win | Total No of win since 1921 |
| Canterbury cricket team (based in Canterbury, New Zealand) | 1906-07 | 20 |
| Auckland Aces (based in Aucklant, New Zealand) | 1907-08 | 23 |
| Wellington Firebirds (based in Wellington, New Zealand) | 1918-19 | 21 |
| Otago Volts (based in Otago, New zealand ) | 1924-25 | 13 |
| Central stags (based in Central New Zealand ) | 1953-54 | 11 |
| Northern Districts (based in Northern New Zealand) | 1962-63 | 8 |
The most successful team in Plunket shield championship
As of right now Auckland is the most successful team in the Plucket shield championship by holding the shield for more than 23 times, 28 time to be since 1907-08.