GS Lakshmi to become first woman match referee in ICC event
GS Lakshmi will become the first Indian woman referee to officiate in an ICC event as the council announced the list of the match officials for the ICC Men's T20 World Cup Qualifier 2019. Lakshmi first officiated in domestic women's cricket in 2008-09 and oversaw the 2019 women's T20 challenge too.
During her tenure with Railways, the most successful team in Indian women’s cricketing domain, GS Lakshmi played alongside former Indian captain Diana Edulji and current national chief selector for the women’s team Hemlata Kala. Although she could never play for India, she was a part of the national squad during India's tour of England in 1999.
In 2008, when the BCCI introduced female referees for the women's domestic games, Lakshmi was among the five female referees to make their debut that season, the other four being former India cricketers Rajani Venugopal, Rajesh Nayyar, Nilima Joglekar and Gargi Banerjee. Now, Lakshmi broke new grounds as she has become the first-ever woman to be appointed to the ICC International Panel of Match Referees and is set to officiate in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup Qualifier 2019.
Apart from Lakshmi, former New Zealand captain Jeff Crowe and South Africa's Gerhardus Piennar are the other two match referees for the tournament alongside 12 umpires. As per the roaster released by the ICC, Piennar will officiate in the opening match of the tournament between Scotland and Singapore at the ICC Academy Oval 1 Ground, with Roland Black and Ahsan Raza as the umpires.
On the same day, Lakshmi will officiate the match between Hong Kong and Ireland at the Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi along with Sam Nogajski and Sundaram Ravi as umpires. Crowe, Alex Wharf and Allahudien Palekar will officiate in the Oman vs UAE match later in the day.
ICC Senior Manager Umpires and Referees, Adrian Griffith said, "We are committed to appointing the finest officials available for any match or tournament and have done our best to put this team together. This is an important tournament with six teams due to book places in next year's T20 World Cup and I am confident our officials will do a fine job. I wish them all the best."
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