The sixty-ninth season of the Ranji Trophy brought a major structural shift to Indian first-class cricket. Twenty-seven teams competed in the tournament, which introduced Elite and Plate divisions for the first time. The upper Elite division featured fifteen teams split into two groups, while the remaining twelve teams contested the Plate division. Promotion and relegation tied the two tiers together, as Karnataka and Kerala earned spots in the Elite division for the following season after successful campaigns, while Himachal Pradesh and Orissa dropped down to the Plate division.
Mumbai claimed the championship title by defeating Tamil Nadu by 141 runs in the final. Mumbai won the toss and batted first in the title match, ultimately securing the thirty-fifth title in the history of the team. The path to the final required navigating a competitive knockout stage alongside teams like Delhi, Baroda, and Karnataka, which won the Plate Division after a final against Kerala.
Individual performances shaped the tournament across both divisions. Gautam Gambhir of Delhi topped the run-scoring charts with 833 runs. Meanwhile, bowling honors were shared at the top, as Lakshmipathy Balaji of Tamil Nadu and Sunil Joshi of Karnataka each claimed 47 wickets.
| Team | Played | W | L | FL | FD | NR | Bonus | Points |
| Mumbai | 7 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 13 |
| Delhi | 7 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 8 |
| Andhra Pradesh | 7 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 5 | |
| Hyderabad | 7 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 5 | |
| Rajasthan | 7 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 4 | |
| Bengal | 7 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Railways | 7 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | |
| Himachal Pradesh | 7 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 |
| Team | Played | W | L | FL | FD | NR | Bonus | Points |
| Tamil Nadu | 6 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 8 |
| Baroda | 6 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 7 |
| Punjab | 6 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 7 | |
| Assam | 6 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Gujarat | 5 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | |
| Uttar Pradesh | 6 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |
| Orissa | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Team | Played | W | L | FL | FD | NR | Bonus | Points |
| Kerala | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 11 |
| Vidarbha | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 6 |
| Goa | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | |
| Saurashtra | 5 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | |
| Services | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 1 | |
| Tripura | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Team | Played | W | L | FL | FD | NR | Bonus | Points |
| Karnataka | 5 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 9 |
| Madhya Pradesh | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 9 |
| Haryana | 5 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 7 |
| Maharashtra | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 6 |
| Jammu and Kashmi | 5 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Bihar | 5 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 18–21 January 2003 Scorecard |
| Kerala | v | Madhya Pradesh |
| 156 (68.3 overs)C Hemanth Kumar 43 (79)Harvinder Sodhi 3/26 (10 overs) | 112 (70.5 overs)Amay Khurasiya 42 (88)K. N. Ananthapadmanabhan 3/29 (14 overs) | |
| 185 (81.4 overs)Suresh Kumar 58 (111)Narendra Hirwani 4/58 (31.4 overs) | 161 (69.1 overs)Amay Khurasiya 77 (113)Sreekumar Nair 5/66 (13 overs) |
| Kerala won by 68 runsNehru Stadium, Kochi Umpires: VM Gupte and SM Bandedkar |
| 27–31 January 2003 Scorecard |
| Karnataka | v | Vidarbha |
| 364 (139.5 overs)Barrington Rowland 124 (306)Chandrashekar Atram 3/71 (19 overs) | 236 (76.5 overs)Vivek Naidu 43 (101)Sunil Joshi 5/45 (26.5 overs) | |
| 607/9d (147 overs)Deepak Chougule 166 (282)Alind Naidu 2/42 (7 overs) | 270 (78.5 overs)Ranjit Paradkar 70 (160)Sunil Joshi 4/51 (28 overs) |
| Karnataka won by 465 runsVidarbha Cricket Association Ground, Nagpur Umpires: V Chopra and Devendra Sharma |
| 4–6 March 2003 Scorecard |
| Kerala | v | Karnataka |
| 190 (77.3 overs)Hemanth Kumar 48 (128)Sunil Joshi 6/62 (30 overs) | 405 (129.1 overs)Sudhindra Shinde 84 (136)K. N. Ananthapadmanabhan 5/118 (37 overs) | |
| 204 (59.3 overs)Hemanth Kumar 44 (130)Sunil Joshi 6/75 (23.3 overs) |
| Karnataka won by an innings and 11 runsM. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore Umpires: SK Sharma and Jasbir Singh |
| 25–29 April 2003 Scorecard |
| Tamil Nadu | v | Delhi |
| 327 (128.4 overs)Sadagoppan Ramesh 82 (244)Rahul Sanghvi 3/26 (13 overs) | 256 (95.1 overs)Narender Negi 44(135)MR Shrinivas 4/47 (23.1 overs) | |
| 261 (93 overs)Sridharan Sharath 75 (175)NS Negi 3/41 (12 overs) | 200 (53.3 overs)Virender Sehwag 99 (114)Lakshmipathy Balaji 5/49 (16 overs) |
| Tamil Nadu won by 132 runsFeroz Shah Kotla, Delhi Umpires: F Gomes and AM Saheba |
| 25–29 April 2003 Scorecard |
| Baroda | v | Mumbai |
| 130 (43.3 overs)Rakesh Solanki 43 (114)Ajit Agarkar 5/46 (15 overs) | 390 (122.3 overs)Bhavin Thakkar 76 (254)Zaheer Khan 5/46 (23.3 overs) | |
| 122 (51.2 overs)Rakesh Solanki 38 (142)Sairaj Bahutule 5/21 (13.2 overs) |
| Mumbai won by an innings and 138 runsGujarat State Fertilizer Corporation Ground, Vadodara Umpires: Devendra Sharma and K Hariharan |
| 4–8 May 2003 Scorecard |
| Mumbai | v | Tamil Nadu |
| 260 (91 overs)Wasim Jaffer 83 (154)Somasetty Suresh 3/51 (18 overs) | 271 (115.3 overs)Sadagoppan Ramesh 85 (202)Ajit Agarkar 4/57 (29 overs) | |
| 387/7 d (105 overs)Nishit Shetty 100 (133)MR Shrinivas 3/73 (21 overs) | 235 (100.4 overs)Hemang Badani 109 (220)Sairaj Bahutule 5/70 (30.4 overs) |
| Mumbai won by 141 runsWankhede Stadium, Mumbai Umpires: V Chopra and NN Menon |
Squad lists and statistics via Wikipedia