The Australian team and tournament favorite, brought their 6^th World T20 title,  beating South Africa.

Brief Scores

Australia won by 19 runs.

In a world cup marred with questionable umpiring and umpiring blunders, the World cup was still a treat to watch for the cricket fans as the resurgent Australians stormed their way to the finals, beating India in the semi-finals and South Africa in the finals to lift their well-deserved 6^th

Despite putting up only a par score, the Australian bowlers did very well to restrict the South Africans.

List of Winners

ICC Women’s T20 World Cup: Australians are Champions Again – Umpiring under Scanner 

This article is not penned with any prejudice against female umpiring and the editorial team feels that the overall quality of umpiring is getting deteriorated with no major corrections coming from the cricket body to improve the quality of the same. Commentators cover the mistakes of umpires and the broadcasters too is reluctant to repeat blatant umpiring blunders by not showing replays on television. The press somehow has kept a lid on this.

The recently concluded women’s T20 worldcup 2023 saw the favourites Australia winning the tournament quite convincingly, but the event was also marred by some ridiculous umpiring blunders and mistakes that made the tournament lose some of its sheen.

In the recently concluded Women’s U19 World Cup, DRS reviews and umpire referrals were not used in the initial rounds and all decisions were made by the on-field umpires. This opened a whole new Pandoras Box of blundering umpiring calls. This also proves that the umpires officiating the matches were not competent enough to handle on-field calls. While it is human to err, when almost all tough decisions made on-field is inaccurate, the overall quality of a World Cup comes down. The reason why this is not spoken much is that those teams who took the major hits were associated nations and these teams hardly complain.

The Women’s T20 World Cup held in South Africa is not exempted from its share of blunders either.

The ICC Women’s T20 Worldcup announced an all-female Umpiring Panel for officiating for the tournament. It was a great initiative from the ICC, but the umpires were not competent enough and experienced enough to officiate a World Cup event. Having an all-female officiating panel for any gender cricket tournament is most welcome, provided it does not compromise the quality of decision making.

ICC Women’s T20 World Cup: ICC announced an All-Female Panel of match officials for the Women’s T20 World Cup 

In a significant first for world cricket, the International Cricket Council named an all-female panel of match officials.

3 officials and 10 umpires made up the 13-woman team in South Africa to officiate the biggest tournament in women’s cricket.

While the move was a noble one, the quality of umpiring has been nothing but a disaster.

• Wides given even when the ball is clearly inside the guidelines provided.
• Lbw given when the ball clearly is 4 feet away from the leg stumps.
• Bowler bowls 7 balls over.
• A grounded ball, soft signal given of not out and on replays only the TV umpire sees a magic finger (Conclusive evidence) below the ball to overturn the soft signal of the on-field umpire.
• No warning given to batters who run on the middle of the pitch.
• Leg bye given to Brits against the English team for no shot offered.
• Almost every LBW decision by the on-field umpire has been challenged and overturned. This was the most I have seen in any tournament I have covered.

The list is a long one.

Again, all umpires make mistakes, but the blunders seen in the current Worldcup is not mistakes but a result of umpires being incompetent. And to add cherry on top, the commentators give a blind eye to it.

While we all want women’s cricket to grow and female umpires empanelled, having 24 years olds on the panel having less than a year’s experience of officiating in international cricket in the World Cup is downright dumb and ridiculous.

Even in the maidans of Mumbai, club matches and friendlies are officiated by umpires having more than 10-15 years’ experience.

Cricket should not be cute and good looking ….it should be tough and fairly played

Umpires need to have a minimum bench mark to officiate a world event not because they look good on camera.

While I agree there has to be equal opportunity given to men and women across sport, why should there be shortcuts for female umpires? Tell me, one male umpire officiating a world event with less than 5 yrs experience in the game.

The panel this time includes seven first timers at the Women’s T20 World Cup.

Eight women officials each were involved in the Women’s T20 World Cup 2020 and the Women’s Cricket World Cup 2022, while nine women have been involved in the ICC Under-19 Women’s T20 World Cup in South Africa. So, when Mediocrity is awarded, the tournament will see fading viewership.

Both the women’s T20 and ODI world cup had its share of some shocking umpiring calls.

Not all are Bad Though     

 While opportunity given to Claire Polosak, Sue Redfern, Jacqueline Williams and Kim Cotton have merits to be in the umpiring panel. Kim Cotton was the best umpire in this World Cup.

ICC needs to review all umpiring decisions made in this World Cup and hope it is not swept under the carpet as women’s cricket can be as competitive as the men’s and can draw huge crowds if there are corrections made and if there are fewer errors in officiating the matches.

The young umpires like Lauren Agenberg and Anna Harris should not be given a free pass because of their age. They should go through the rigours of domestic and international matches for a couple of more years. They do have the potential to be great umpires. At the moment, their errors in a world event are unforgivable.

Over the past decade or so, poor umpiring has been a key challenge facing the game of cricket. It has marred many good cricket contests. Fans have been deprived of many great matches. Some teams have lost matches that they should have won. Perhaps there have been some great knocks, too, because of poor decisions.

The issue has been discussed at length by several cricketing pundits without much headway. This article is an attempt to bring out some of the important points that need to be discussed and resolved.

Standard of Umpiring                                                

The obvious reason for the decline in umpiring standards is the advancement of technology and its reach for a global audience. However, I’m of the opinion that, in spite of technology, the overall standard has definitely deteriorated.

While there can be unavoidable judgement errors on close calls for LBW, caught close-ins, and can certainly be condoned, there have been innumerable instances where the errors have come out due to the competence level of the umpires.

LBW decisions given when there are big edges, or when the ball clearly goes down the leg are a few of the often-repeated mistakes. All because the appeals were convincing enough?

Umpire’s Call in DRS

In DRS, when the ball hits less than ½ the side of the stumps, it becomes an umpire’s call. The same is the call for pitch and striking the pads in-line.

Why give the benefit of the doubt to the umpire and not to the bowler for such calls?

Whether the on-field umpire gave out or not out, the Batsman should be given OUT if DRS shows the ball is hitting the stumps, fully or as on the Umpire’s call.

Solution: Assessment of Umpires?

• Umpires should be accessed and graded for their accuracy in decision making. Good umpires need to be rewarded while the wrong ones demoted
• A larger pool of “ICC Elite Panel” to be made. Umpiring, as a profession, needs to be encouraged
• A training school which exposes potential umpires to the finer aspects of umpiring may be of use.

The Men’s Cricket also is facing a similar plight and it is time that there are some constructive discussions on the same

FAQs 

• Who Won The World Cup 2020 Women’s?

         Australia Beating India

• Which Team Won the Women’s World T20 Title?

            Australia

• Who Won Women’s T20 World Cup 2023?

            Australia beating South Africa

• Who is the ranked at the top of women’s T20 batting ranking?

            Tahlia Mc Grath – Australia

• How many times indian womens’s team won the T20 world cup?

           India is yet to win an ICC World cu