Vrinda Rathi: the first Indian female umpire to officiate in T20 Mumbai League

India’s GS Lakshmi became the first Indian female match referee to be appointed to the ICC International Panel of Match Referees earlier this week. Now, the T20 Mumbai League witnessed history as Vrinda Rathi became the first female national umpire to officiate in the T20 contest.

The 29-year-old Mumbai based Rathi, cleared the BCCI’s Level-2 Umpiring Exam, thus becoming eligible for umpiring in international women’s cricket and junior boys’ matches. She thus joined Chennai’s N Janani, another international woman umpire from India.

Rathi spends her time officiating matches of Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) in the maidans of the city. She earlier was a BCCI affiliated scorer and participated in the 2013 Women’s World Cup in New Zealand and saw Kathy Cross, an international cricket umpire, who retired from the game recently and got interested in taking up umpiring.

Umpiring requires both physical endurance and mental toughness, says Vrinda Rathi

“Umpiring requires you to hone your skills under the scorching sun. The job calls for both physical endurance and mental toughness. More than body language, communication, and interpersonal skills, it’s astute decision-making that defines a good umpire,” says Rathi was quoted as saying in an interview with Time of India.

Former India women’s cricketer Snehal Pradhan shared photos of Rathi officiating in the match and wrote,” Thrilled to see Vrinda Rathi officiating in the @T20Mumbai, showing that women can officiate even in the most ‘khadoos’ environment. Quite the role model.”

Thrilled to see Vrinda Rathi officiating in the @T20Mumbai, showing that women can officiate even in the most 'khadoos' environment. Quite the role model. Read a little more about her story here. https://t.co/7e0mUZVSje

📸: Hotstar screengrabs pic.twitter.com/VI9vYkeG9m

— Snehal Pradhan (@SnehalPradhan) May 18, 2019

Rathi has the experience of playing cricket as a medium pacer for Mumbai University and now looks and after passing her Level-2 exams, she will look to officiate at least 60 match days on an average, from September to April every season. She has officiated matches with a fellow female umpire from Mumbai Varsha Nagre as well.

In April 2019, Claire Polosak became the first woman to stand in a men’s ODI match, when she was one of the on-field umpires for the final of the 2019 ICC World Cricket League Division Two tournament.

Talking about the T20 Mumbai League 2019, North Mumbai Panthers lead the group A standings with 4 points from 2 matches, while SoBo Supersonics have 6 points from 3 games and lead the group B standings. Akhil Herwadkar of ARCS Andheri is the leading run scorer with 161 runs in 3 games and Atif Attarwala of North Mumbai Panthers is the leading wicket-taker with 6 wickets in 2 matches.