On December 13, 2022, the Ranji Trophy 2022–23 season officially began. Vrinda Rathi, Janani Narayanan, and Gayathri Venugopalan, three female umpires who officiated in Ranji Trophy games for the first time ever, wrote history.
Ranji Trophy tournament
The first female officials to officiate in the ongoing Ranji Trophy tournament in India were women umpires Vrinda Rathi, Janani Narayanan, and Gayathri Venugopalan on Tuesday. In women’s cricket, the trio enjoys a high level of respect.
In the second-round game between Jharkhand and Chattisgarh, Venugopalan is the match official. Narayanan and Rathi are the referees for the games between Goa and Pondicherry and Railways and Tripura, respectively.
The trio, who came from varied backgrounds and were already well-known on the women’s circuit, made history when the BCCI selected female umpires for the domestic men’s circuit.
Narayanan, 36, was a huge fan of cricket and all things related to it. She even twice approached Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) to apply to be an umpire since she wanted to be on the field.
She passed the BCCI’s Level 2 umpiring exam in 2018 a few years after the state organization amended its policy to let women officiate, so she didn’t have to give much thought before abandoning her comfortable IT job to pursue umpiring. In 2021, she also served as a referee for the Tamil Nadu Premier League. On the other hand, the 32-year-old Rathi has emerged from Mumbai’s maidans.
Prior to passing the BCCI scorers examination, she used to score local matches. For the 2013 Women’s World Cup, she served as the BCCI’s authorized scorer. She later transitioned to umpiring.
In addition to being seasoned officials, Narayanan and Rathi were a part of the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) panel of development officials back in 2020. The pair’s promotion to the ICC development panel was praised by veteran umpire instructor Denis Burns, who has worked closely with Indian umpires and guided their ascent to the international level.
He said, “I believe Janani and Vrinda to be the ‘new wave’ of Indian women umpires. 43-year-old Venugopalan, who lives in Delhi, had aspirations of playing cricket, but a shoulder injury dashed those dreams.” After passing the BCCI exam, she began umpiring in 2019.
She has already worked as a fourth-place reserve umpire in the Ranji Trophy. Women are already acting as umpires in men’s cricket in Australia and England, so the BCCI still has a long way to go. Only three of the 150 umpires that have registered with the BCCI are female.
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