Umpiring standards have come under scrutiny at the Women's World Cup 2025, which has witnessed numerous contentious calls in its first two-and-a-half weeks. The most conspicuous of these mistakes have appeared around the use of the decision review system (DRS), which is only sporadically used in the women's game. As such, the umpires' experience with DRS protocols has come under the spotlight.
One of the most notable mis-steps occurred in the match between England and Bangladesh, when Heather Knight got three reprieves, one of which was a low catch by Shorna Akter. On 13 at the time, with England chasing 179, Knight chipped legspinner Fahima Khatum to Shorna at cover.
Knight was happy to walk off, but TV umpire Gayathri Venugopalan ruled otherwise based on "inconclusive" evidence. Earlier, there was also a caught-behind decision that was given out on the field, but overturned by the third umpire, who felt the ball hit Knight's pad through to the wicketkeeper.
"I did the presentation that evening and I put it to Heather Knight, and she did not sit on the fence at all," Nasser Hussain, who is working as a broadcaster at the tournament, said on *JioStar pressroom. "She said, 'well, I thought it was out, I was walking off'. There were other lbw reviews as well and Heather said, 'I've never been out so many times in a cricket match.' She then got 60 or 70 not out [79 not out] to win the game, and that really hurts you."
Another incident was Muneeba Ali's run out during the match between India and Pakistan in Colombo. Muneeba, the Pakistan opener, was originally given not-out on the big screen by the TV umpire, before that decision was changed to "out".
On that occasion, TV umpire Kerrin Klaaste had not viewed all the available footage before first ruling it not-out lbw, and changed that decision after viewing further footage that showed there had been a run-out decision to make as well. The correct decision was eventually arrived at, but the process caused significant confusion, leading Muneeba and captain Fatima Sana to seek further clarification from the fourth umpire on the edge of the boundary.
Then, during their game against South Africa, India reviewed a not-out lbw call against Sune Luus. The third umpire, Candace la Borde, adjudicated that a murmur on Ultra Edge was enough to indicate an under-edge onto the pad even though a side-on replay showed reasonable distance between the ball and bat at the time of the murmur. Luus remained not out.
During the India-Australia game, the catch taken by Sneh Rana at point to dismiss Alyssa Healy was checked by third umpire Jacqueline Williams, who said, "I can see the ball touching the ground," before she changed her line and ruled the catch clean.
"If you look at these replays enough, if you keep zooming in - I can't remember where I was, I might have been watching on the telly actually - there was another one of those the fingers and the hands get under the ball," Hussain said about the Healy dismissal. "The third umpire didn't ask for 15 different replays or whatever. She just looked at it, sort of, a couple of times, gut feel, fingers were under the ball, that's out. Which I always worry about when I am watching at home or in broadcast. If you keep looking, you will find things; you have to be meticulous."
Of the ten umpires who have performed TV duties through the course of this World Cup, only three have officiated as TV umpire in more than 20 matches with DRS available: Sue Redfern (42), Eloise Sheridan (25), and Kim Cotton (24).
There are three umpires who had never previously been a TV umpire in an ODI that used DRS - la Borde, N Janani and Sarah Dambanenava. La Borde, in fact, had never been a third umpire in any international using DRS, while Janani and Dambanenava have had DRS experience in a limited number of T20Is. More significantly, five of the ten TV umpires had performed the role in fewer than five internationals with DRS available. In addition to the three mentioned, Venugopalan and Klaaste are also inexperienced with DRS.
There has also been a greater percentage of on-field decisions overturned via the use of reviews than is often seen at major global competitions. In this World Cup, there have been 25 successful overturns of on-field decisions in 36 innings - a rate of 0.67 successful overturns per innings. In the last World Cup to be played in Asia - the men's ODI World Cup in 2023 - the rate of successful overturns per innings was 0.46.
The ICC declined to comment on the umpires' relative inexperience with DRS, and did not reveal whether teams themselves had raised queries on umpiring missteps. The ICC's umpire manager, Sean Easey, has been at some venues during this World Cup.
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