NKP Salve Challenger Trophy was named after former Board of Control for Cricket in India president NKP Salve - the man who brought the World Cup to the sub-continent in 1987. That was the main reason why the BCCI decided to name the Challenger Series after Mr. NKP Salve. Being considered as one of the premium competitions in the Indian domestic cricket arena, the NKP Salve Challenger Trophy has earned a lot of importance and attraction from the cricket enthusiasts. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) started the tournament in the years of 1994-95, with an objective to find cricketers who can represent the country in the coming years.

The BCCI started the NKP Salve Challenger Trophy considering that the Indian national cricket team plays a large number of international cricket matches every year and this tournament would help the board to up bring new cricketers for the national team. The tournament is also seen as a platform for the former international cricketers, who were forced to be out of the national team due to injury, to make a come back. The tournament is mainly played in the month of October, just before the start of Ranji season and it mainly showcases the vast talent that the country has in cricket. The day-night tournament also provides a very good opportunity to the younger players to make an impression, while playing against the best cricketers in the country and catch the eyes of the national selectors for getting a chance in the national team.

There are only three teams in the tournament namely the India Senior, India A and India B and the teams compete with each other first in a league basis and then go into playing the semis and the final. The teams comprise the best 36 players of the country and that is why it is believed to be the most authentic tournament to produce the best 11 players for the national team. The India Senior team won the first edition of the NKP Salve Challenger Trophy in 1994, and it also won the 4-day tournament, for the next three years. The India A and India B teams were declared as joint winners in 1998, after India seniors were ousted from the tournament and the final could not be played due to bad weather.

The trophy of the NKP Salve Challenger Trophy went to the Indian Senior team in the years of 1999 and 2000 and the 2001 trophy went to the India A team. However, the BCCI failed to organise the tournament in 2002, due to some unavoidable reasons. The India A team continued their good run in the tournament for another two years and won the trophy in 2003 and 2004, consecutively. The 2005 trophy went to the Indian Senior team. However, the BCCI changed the names of the team as Blue, Green and Red after the 2005 edition. The main reason behind changing the names was that the BCCI wanted to add a new flavour to this India based national cricket tournament. Another reason was that as there were no seniors in the tournament, by naming the teams India Green, India Blue and India red would not define which team will be the best and which will be the worst. So the audience attraction would keep intact to the tournament. Both the Red and Blue teams were declared as joint winners in 2006, when rain interrupted the final match, once again. The India Senior team has the credit of winning the tournament for most of the times. The defending champions have won the tournament for as many as 7 times, so far.

The Challenger Series gained popularity in the 2005-06 editions as it showed the comeback of Sachin Tendulkar from injury.