Bangladesh women umpires make history

About a thousand spectators who gathered at the City Club of the capital on Saturday could hardly realise history was being unfolded in front of their eyes during the third-division cricket league match between Uditi Club and Gulshan Youth.

Sathira Zakir opened a new chapter in the annals of Bangladesh cricket by standing as the first female umpire in the men’s game.

Sathira, the former national team player, who played three international matches for Bangladesh women team, was ecstatic to do that. ‘I had some fear during the previous night. But felt nothing as soon as I reached the field. Umpiring is a matter of courage and honesty. Everything is all right if these two things are right. But the match went to the last over. Around thousand people saw it. I was the only girl among all these people. It was an incredible feeling,”’ Sathira told Prothom Alo after the match.

Sathira, who was a cricketer in the early days of Bangladesh women team in international arena, felt proud of being another ‘first'.

"Someone has to start. We played cricket in the early days. Now we have started umpiring. I felt very bad when I saw no Bangladeshi female umpire during Women Asia Cup in Bangladesh. There was umpire from Malaysia, and even from conservative country like Pakistan. Why not us?” added Sathira.

Rokeya Sultana Chowdhury got the same feeling as Sathira. She umpired another match in the same field. On the same day Doly Rani Sarkar umpired at BKSP. Another female umpire Muntaha Khatun is waiting for her debut. She may appear as field umpire on November. The third division cricket league has registered all four of them.

As a matter of fact, Doly Rani was the trailblazer for them. She stood as umpire in many unofficial matches of men. Her long wait to officiate officially at last came true during the Mohakhali Cricket Academy and Kamrangirchar Sporting Club. “I stood as umpire for over a hundred matches but none of them were official. At last, I umpired during a BCB match,’ said Doly.

Rokeya also had to wait. She started her cricket career in 2005. She passed umpiring course in 2011 and at last got recognition as main umpire. “I had to wait for a long time. Could not start umpiring for many reasons. I was a bit anxious today. But Vaiya (Shahinur Rashid, umpire in the other end) helped me a lot. I thank both teams as they supported me a lot. I was scared whether I face sledging or other rude behaviours. But nothing such happened. I want to keep on the good start.’