There is a particular kind of courage required to stand at the crease in a white coat, arm raised, the eyes of twenty-two players on you, knowing that every call you make will be scrutinised, and that getting there at all was in itself a battle that had nothing to do with cricket.

That is the world Rithika Sri inhabits every time she walks onto a ground in Tamil Nadu’s Salem, Namakkal, or Coimbatore. At 31, she has become India's first trans woman cricket umpire, officiating league fixtures and association matches across the State. 

But before the white coat, before the "ma'am" from players who now address her with ease, there was a gate — and a security guard who would not let her through.

An unlikely beginning

Rithika's love affair with cricket umpiring was born not in Tamil Nadu but in Punjab. In 2019, she was working at a BPO company in Mohali under her birth name, Muthuraj, when she found herself riveted to the IPL on television. 

The athleticism of the players was one thing; what arrested her attention was the stillness of the umpires — their authority, their calm. She went online, researched the pathway, and discovered a........

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