Ranji Trophy 2018-19 season will be listed as the “Historic Season” in the annals of Umpiring in India.

Vrinda Rathi (Mumbai CA) and Janani Narayanan ( Tamil Nadu CA) will be making their umpiring debut in Ranji Trophy matches scheduled to be played at Puducherry and Raipur to earn the distinction of becoming the first BCCI Qualified Lady Umpires to officiate National Level matches of BCCI. Along with them, a couple of their male batch mates will also be debuting in various venues that will host Ranji Trophy matches in the country. 

Here’s Ganesh Iyer,  one of the veteran umpire on the Maidan circuit of Mumbai wishing them  “All the very best for a long and illustrious career ahead”.  These two women umpires will be making their debut in the second round and third round matches of the Ranji Trophy 2018-19 season. Puducherry will host the Plate Group match between Puducherry and Meghalaya, from Nov 12-15, 2018, while Raipur will host the Elite Group match between Chattisgarh and Railways, from Nov 20-23, 2018

Ganesh Iyer says that he would like to pass on his experience to these two debutant women umpires. “There’s was a ton of nerves for every match I’ve been in; it doesn’t matter if it was my debut.” So just enjoy the game, soak in the experience and things will go on well by itself.

Foot Note: 

However, the credit of a woman umpire to officiate a men’s match goes to Ms. Padma of  Accountant General Office, Bangalore who passed the Umpiring Examination conducted by Mysore State Cricket Association {now Karnataka State Cricket Assocication} in the 1970s and officiated a few first division league matches conducted  by the Association

Article courtesy – Ganesh Iyer’s posting on FaceBook