India will have a historic presence in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup final despite the national team not featuring in Sunday’s title clash. The International Cricket Council (ICC) has appointed Vrinda Rathi as one of the two on-field umpires for the final between England and Australia at Lord’s, making her the first Indian woman to officiate in a Women’s World Cup final.
Rathi will stand alongside West Indies’ Jacqueline Williams for the summit clash, while New Zealand’s Kim Cotton has been named the TV umpire and Australia’s Claire Polosak will serve as the fourth umpire. The appointment is one of the highest honours in international officiating and comes after Rathi’s consistent performances on the global stage.
The landmark selection also places Rathi in elite company. She becomes only the second Indian umpire to officiate in an ICC World Cup final after Ram Babu Gupta, who stood in the men’s ODI World Cup final in 1987. No Indian woman had previously been entrusted with an on-field role in a World Cup final across either the ODI or T20 formats.
The 37-year-old’s journey to the pinnacle of umpiring has been far from conventional. Before taking up officiating, Rathi was a medium-pacer who represented the Mumbai University women’s team for four years. Although she could not break into Mumbai’s senior side as a player, she remained involved in the game before eventually switching to umpiring.
Former BCCI umpire Ganesh Iyer played a pivotal role in that transition. Rathi initially worked as a scorer before Iyer encouraged her to pursue umpiring professionally, believing she had the potential to build a successful career as an official.”She was a scorer originally. Then, she became an umpire at my insistence. ‘You can have a career in umpiring,’ I told her,” Iyer recalled while speaking to The Times of India.
Rathi cleared the Mumbai Cricket Association’s umpiring examination in 2014 before passing the BCCI’s certification process in 2018. Her rise through the ranks was swift, earning promotion to the ICC Development Panel within a year before going on to officiate regularly in international women’s cricket. “Rathi cleared the umpires’ exam conducted by the Mumbai Cricket Association in 2014 before passing the BCCI exam in 2018, and ‘within one year (in 2020) she along with Narayanan Janani, were promoted to ICC development panel of umpires,” Iyer said.
Rathi’s rise has continued steadily ever since. She officiated at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham before creating history in January 2023, when she and Janani Narayanan became among the first women to stand as on-field umpires in a men’s Ranji Trophy match, officiating the fixture between Goa and Pondicherry. The same year proved to be a breakthrough in her international career as she officiated at the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in South Africa, stood in the final of the inaugural Women’s Premier League and was also part of the officiating panel for the Asian Games in Hangzhou.
In December 2023, Rathi became the first Indian woman to officiate in a women’s Test match, standing in the one-off Test between India and England at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai. To date, she has officiated in one women’s Test, 20 Women’s One-Day Internationals and 77 Women’s T20 Internationals, making her one of India’s most experienced female match officials on the international circuit.
Loves all things female cricket