On January 10, 2023, Vrinda Rathi, Janani Narayanan, and Gayathri Venugopalan made history by becoming the first female umpires trio to officiate in the Ranji Trophy.
Venugopal was assigned to the second round match between Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh in Jamshedpur, while Narayanan and Rathi were umpiring the Railways vs Tripura game in Surat and Goa vs Pondicherry match in Porvorim.
- Rathi, a former scorer on Mumbai’s maidans, was inspired to pursue umpiring after meeting New Zealand international umpire Kathy Cross.
- Narayanan, a former software engineer in Chennai, left her job to pursue umpiring when the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association invited applications.
- Venugopalan, a 43-year-old from Delhi, had originally aimed to become a professional cricketer but a shoulder injury forced her to change her career path. She cleared the BCCI umpiring exams and was enrolled as an umpire in 2019.
