Already revered among women, the trio became the first female referees to referee the competition.
Vrindalati, N Janani and V Gayathri made history on Tuesday by becoming the first women to host the Ranji Trophy.
Gayathri, a former cricketer whose career was cut short by her injury, is now the referee for the second round match between Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh in Jamshedpur. Former software her engineer Janani is in charge of the match between Railways and Tripura in Surat and former goalscorer Rathi is in charge of the match between Goa and Pondicherry in Porvorim.
Already highly regarded in the women’s circus, with a diverse background, the trio made history thanks to her BCCI’s decision to recruit a female judge for the Men’s National Circus.
A long-time cricket enthusiast, Janani, 36, a Tamil native, has approached the Nadu State Cricket Association (TNCA) several times to become a referee. Years after state agencies changed rules to allow women to become referees, she passed the BCCI Level 2 referee exam in 2018 and almost thinks about quitting her IT job to become a referee. It never happened. Since then, Narayan has joined Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) in 2021.
Rati, 32, is from Mumbai. She used to score in local games before passing her top scorer exam for the BCCI. She was her BCCI official goalscorer for the 2013 Women’s World Cup. She later switched to refereeing.
Janani and Rathi are experienced arbitrators and have already been admitted to her ICC Panel of Development Arbitrators for 2020.
Dennis Barnes, a veteran referee coach who has worked closely with Indian referees and oversaw their rise to international level, was welcoming the duo’s promotion to the ICC Development Agency.
“I think Janani and Vrinda represent the ‘new wave’ of female referees in India,” he said.
Gayathri, 43, based in Delhi, dreamed of becoming a cricketer, but her shoulder injury dashed her hopes. After passing the BCCI exam, started working as a referee in 2019. Venugopalan was previously a reserve referee (fourth) in the Ranji Trophy.
England and Australia already have several women umpires in men’s cricket, but she is the only three women among her 150 BCCI registered umpires.