Vrinda Rathi will become the first Indian umpire to officiate in the final of the ICC Women’s World Cup

Umpire Vrinda Rathi pictured during the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup England & Wales 2026 match between Pakistan and Netherlands at the Bristol County Ground on June 27, 2026 in Bristol, England. (Photo by Matthew Lewis-ICC/ICC via Getty Images) MUMBAI: The Indian women’s cricket team may have suffered an early exit from the 2026 Women’s World Cup T20, but India will still have a presence in the tournament’s biggest match – and in historic style.Vrinda Rathi, who hails from Nerul in Navi Mumbai, has been appointed by the International Cricket Council (ICC) as one of the on-field umpires for the Women’s T20 World Cup final between hosts England and Australia at the iconic Lord’s Cricket Ground on Sunday. He will officiate alongside Jacqueline Williams.Rathi’s appointment marks a significant milestone as she becomes the first Indian referee to officiate at a Women’s World Cup final. She is also only the second Indian umpire to officiate in an ICC World Cup final after Ram Babu Gupta, who officiated the men’s World Cup final at the Eden Gardens in 1987 alongside Pakistan’s Mahboob Shah. Meanwhile, match referee GS Lakshmi officiated the 2023 and 2024 Women’s World Cup T20 finals.Rathi, 37, has built an impressive officiating career, featuring in 20 Women’s One Day Internationals, 77 Women’s T20 Internationals and one Women’s Test match.“She is a good, hard-working umpire. She is one of the best umpires on the ICC panel in the women’s game. She was originally a shooter. Then she became an umpire on my insistence. ‘You can have a career in umpiring,’ I told her. In 2014, Rathi passed the umpires exam with Murickets, four years later. the umpires exam conducted by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (in 2018) Within a year (in 2020) has been elevated to the ICC Development Panel of umpires along with Narayanan Janani,” Ganesh Iyer, former BCCI umpire and former chairman of the Mumbai Cricket Association committee told TOI.I.Before taking up umpiring, Rathi was a medium-pacer and represented the Mumbai University women’s team for four years, although she failed to break through to the senior women in Mumbai.Rathi made history in December 2023 when she became the first Indian woman to feature in a women’s Test match, in a one-off Test between India and England at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.Her rise among the incumbents was rapid. In 2022, she served at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. On 10 January 2023, along with Janani Narayanan, she became one of the first women to stand as an on-field umpire in a men’s home match in India, in a Ranji Trophy match between Goa and Pondicherry.In 2023, Rathi also officiated at the Women’s T20 World Cup in South Africa, stood in the final of the inaugural Women’s Premier League and was part of the judging panel at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.