Kanto Cricket League, known as Kanto Cup until the season 2000, is arguably the premier cricket tournament in Japan. This tournament, which was started in 1996, was mainly intended for the expatriates teams in Japan.

However, as part of its initiative to streamline the competition structure in Japan, the Japan Cricket Association(JCA) suggested to Kanto Cup Organising Committee(KCOC) to make the Kanto Cup a two division league, include Japanese teams in the competition and rename it to Kanto Cricket League(KCL). The Kanto Cup Annual General Meeting held at YC&AC , Yokohama, in January 2000 voted in favour of the suggestion and decided to disband itself. Consequently, a two-division structure with promotion and relegation system was formed in 2002 based on the results of the season 2001 competition.

The top 7 teams of 2001 formed Division I and the rest formed Division II, with the bottom two of Division I and top two of Division II swapping their places in the subsequent years. Any new team wishing to join the tournament can only be admitted in the lower division.

It started off as a loosely organised, no-specific-rules tournament with JCA's role largely limited to organising a meeting at the beginning of every season at the British Embassy premises. Ever since, the tournament has evolved and various amendments were brought in to the already existing unwritten laws. The tournament saw its first proper management and organisation when a Committee was elected by the participating clubs in 1999 to organise it. The Committee imposed a player registration system by which a player's participation was deemed illegal if his/her name was not registered with the Committee at least 48 hours before the scheduled start of the game. Its first rule book(KCL By-Laws) was developed in 2000. As it happened, the tournament underwent a radical change in 2002 in which it barred the expatriate players without a valid visa from taking part in the competition and became a two-division league under the auspices of JCA's but still being managed and organised by an elected Committee.

Probably first time in the history of the game, a 12 year old boy, Arthur Harrison, made his first class debut in a KCL league match Indian Engineers and Shizuoka Kytes in 2002. The same match also saw a father and son batting in the same innings.

The KCL currently has players from Pakistan, India, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, South Africa and Zimbabwe (and still one token Frenchman!). We look forward to having players of more nationalities (for some reason there seem to be few, if any, West Indian cricketers in Japan). We will be very happy to introduce any potential player to teams he could join.

Some major events of KCL

• 1999 - brought under the management of an elected Committee
• 1999 - first All Star match was held at the end of the season
• 2000 - first rule book was written
• 2002 - became a two-division league
• 2002 - a 12 year old boy, Arthur Harrison, made history by making his debut in the match between Indian Engineers and Shizuoka Kytes.
• 2002 - the match between Indian Engineers and Shizuoka Kytes saw a father and son duo batting together.

Note: Until the year 2000, it was known as Kanto Cup.

• 2007 - Tokyo Giants (defeated Friends)
• 2006 - Tokyo Giants and Friends declared joined winners
• 2005 - Millennium (defeated Tokyo Wombats)
• 2004 - Tokyo Giants (defeated YC&AC)
• 2003 - Tokyo Giants
• 2002 - Tokyo Giants (defeated Millennium)
• 2001 - Tokyo Giants (defeated Friends XI)
• 2000 - Tokyo Giants (defeated Friends XI)
• 1999 - Final not held due to dispute (Friends XI vs. Edogawa Falcons)
• 1998 - Sri Lankan Lions (defeated Friends XI)
• 1997 - Friends XI (defeated Sri Lankan Lions)
• 1996 - Sri Lankan Lions