The Women’s World Cup 2025 has brought attention to umpiring standards, with a number of controversial calls over the first two and a half weeks of play generating concerns. The Decision Review System’s (DRS) intermittent use in women’s sports has been the subject of much discussion. The familiarity and experience of umpires with DRS protocols has thus been thoroughly investigated.
The match between Bangladesh and England had one of the most noteworthy occurrences. Among the three reprieves given to England captain Heather Knight was a low catch by Shorna Akter of Bangladesh. Knight chipped legspinner Fahima Khatum to Shorna at cover when she was 13 in pursuit of 179. Despite Knight’s readiness to walk, TV umpire Gaythri Venugopalan disregarded his request, citing conflicting evidence.
When the third umpire overturned a caught-behind verdict earlier in the game, determining that the ball had struck Knight’s pad before it reached the wicketkeeper, another controversial decision resulted. These incidents have heightened debates over the reliability and correctness of the tournament’s officiating.
“That evening, I gave Heather Knight the presentation, and she accepted it without question. “Well,” she responded, “I was walking off, thinking it was out.” ‘I’ve never been out so many times in a cricket match,’ Heather remarked in one of the other LBM reviews. ESPNcricinfo cited Nasser Hussain, who is a broadcaster at the tournament, as saying on the JioStar pressroom, “That really hurts you because she then got 60 or 70 not out [79 not out] to win the game.”
Another noteworthy event involving Muneeba Ali’s run out happened during the India-Pakistan game in Colombo. She was initially declared not out on the big screen by the TV umpire, but the ruling was later overturned to out. Before making the initial decision, TV umpire Kerrin Klaaste had not gone over all of the available footage. After more investigation, which showed the run-out situation, she changed the verdict. In the end, the right call was made, but the procedure created so much confusion that Muneeba and skipper Fatima Sana had to ask the fourth umpire at the boundary for clarification.
Debate was generated by a controversial not-out lbw judgment against Sune Luus during India’s match against South Africa. The ball and bat were clearly separated at the time, according to side-on videos, but the third umpire, Candace la Borde, determined that a weak signal on UltraEdge meant the ball had touched the bat. In the end, Luus was not out.
An initial doubt was raised about a catch made by Sneh Rana at point to eliminate Alyssa Healy during the India-Australia match. After initially stating that she observed the ball touch the ground, third umpire Jacqueline Williams changed her mind and declared the catch to be clean.
There was another one of those when the hands and fingers get beneath the ball, if you watch these replays closely enough and zoom in. I can’t recall where I was, but I might have been watching on TV. There was no request for fifteen separate replays or anything by the third umpire. She simply glanced at it a few times, felt instinctively that her fingers were beneath the ball, and decided to cut it short. which I constantly worry about when I watch on television or at home. Hussain remarked, “You have to be meticulous; if you keep looking, you will find things,” in reference to Healy’s firing.
Only three umpires—Sue Redfern (42), Eloise Sheridan (25), and Kim Cotton (24), out of the ten designated for TV duties in this World Cup, have officiated as TV umpires in over 20 ODIs with DRS available. On the other hand, three umpires—Candidace la Borde, N Janani, and Sarah Dambanenava—had never used DRS to officiate an ODI as a TV umpire before.
Notably, La Borde had never served as a third umpire in a DRS international match, while Janani and Dambanenava had little T20I experience. In general, in less than five internationals with DRS available, five out of the ten TV umpires had officiated. Not only are Redfern, Sheridan, and Cotton untrained with DRS guidelines, but so are Gaythri Venugopalan and Kerrin Klaaste.
Unusually high on-field judgment overturn rates could be explained in part by this inexperience. 25 on-field rulings were successfully overturned in 36 innings at this World Cup, which translates to an average of 0.67 successful overturns per innings.
In contrast, the rate at the most recent Asia-based men’s ODI World Cup (2023) was 0.46 per innings.
The umpires’ relative lack of experience with DRS was not addressed by the ICC, and it was not disclosed if teams had publicly voiced concerns about officiating errors. Throughout the event, ICC umpire manager Sean Easey has visited a number of locations.
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