Running shoulder to shoulder with men, Vidarbha women cricketers are proving their worth on the field, and now they have started carving a niche for themselves off it. Ankita Guha, a former leg-spinner of Vidarbha, has become the first women umpire from VCA after she cleared the BCCI umpires examination with flying colours. The examination was held in Ahmedabad.
Ankita, who has played a decent number of Women’s List A matches for Vidarbha said that an injury in the 2017-18 season forced her to think about her future. “When in 2018 I got injured, I was forced to quit playing but decided to stay connected with the game. I wanted to become a match referee. I appeared for the umpires examination. I cleared the VCA State panel examination last year and applied for the BCCI examination. I cleared the 4-stage examination in the first attempt itself,” Ankita, who works with the Indian Air Force at Vayusena Nagar, said.
The 37-year-old leg-spinner, Ankita has played seven two-day matches, apart from 25 One-Day and 15 T20s for Vidarbha. “Being a player I got the opportunity to appear for the Level-2 examination of the BCCI directly and I am happy that I cleared it,” Ankita, daughter of late father Shyamal and mother Dolly, proudly said.