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Tag: Umpire N Janani

Sports

Coding job to decoding cricket laws: When Ranji Trophy got its first woman umpire

“Players kept calling me ‘Sir’ for a while before correcting to ‘Madam’,” says N Janani about her first day as a Ranji Trophy umpire for the Railways vs Tripura game at Surat on Tuesday. It wasn’t just about these misplaced gender honorifics; the 36-year-old also battled an old stereotype: that women didn’t quite understand the nuances of the game. “They would try to check if I indeed knew the rules… They are not used to seeing woman umpires. In a close call, they would ask – ‘Are you sure it’s bat and not leg bye?’ – hoping to put some doubt in my mind. But once they figure out that you are confident, they get on with the game. Now that there are three of us, they will get used to us.” This week, Janani, along with Vrindha Rathi and V Gayathri, became part of the first batch of women u...