The Board of Control for Cricket in India is all set to deploy female umpires for the upcoming Ranji Trophy 2022, according to a report in the Indian express. Vrinda Rathi, Janani Narayanan and Gayathri Venugopalan will be the trio who will be standing from the second-round onwards as India’s domestic season reaches its peak in the coming weeks.
“Going ahead, women umpires will be getting to do Ranji Trophy games. This is just a start. The BCCI has decided to give them the opportunity in the men’s game, too,” a BCCI official told The Indian Express.
Rathi, Narayanan and Venugopalan will start from Round 2 of the tournament after missing the first leg of games that start next week since they will be officiating in the India-Australia women’s T20I series.
Women umpires are the new rage with gender equality gaining all the traction in cricket. Earlier BCCI has implemented equal pay for women cricketers which has attracted a lot of accolades. Looks like the BCCI has finally taken the initiative and for the first time will allow women’s umpire to stand in senior men’s tournaments. Earlier the Legends League Cricket had saw female umpires officiating.
Coming back to the trio of women, Rathi hails from Mumbai, while Narayanan was a software engineer from Tamil Nadu. Meanwhile, Venugopalan hails from Delhi. The women will enter history books as this is the first such instance of women umpires officiating in senior men’s tournaments.
Rathi and Narayanan have officiated in under-23 boys’ CK Nayudu Trophy games, the newspaper reported further.
