The M. J. Gopalan Trophy was an annual first-class cricket competition played between Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and Madras (now Tamil Nadu) between 1952–53 and 2007–08.
The idea of the competition came about with the starting of a silver jubilee fund in 1952 to celebrate M.J. Gopalan's 25 years as a cricket and hockey player.
The trophy was donated by the Madras cricket administrator V. Pattabhiraman and was presented to the victors after the first match by Learie Constantine.
[3] The match became a regular fixture in the calendar until Sri Lanka received Test status and the competition was stopped.
[4] Two years later the fixture was dropped again but in 2007 the Sri Lankan and Tamil Nadu boards agreed to restart the competition.