Australian umpire achieves history

Claire Polosak is set to achieve history by becoming the first woman to umpire a men’s one-day international.

The Cricket Australia Supplementary Umpire Panel member will make her ODI debut when she officiates the final of the World Cricket League between hosts Namibia and Oman on Saturday.

Currently in the African nation for the last ever World Cricket League tournament, Polosak has stood in four matches prior to the final in Windhoek.

Polosak has an extensive resume at ICC tournaments around the globe. Her first international assignment was throughout November and December 2015, where she travelled to Thailand and stood in eight matches in the ICC Women’s World T20 Qualifiers.

This led to her appointment to the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup, held in India in March 2016. Polosak was on-field for three matches across Mohali and Dharamsala.

In February 2017, Polosak was appointed to nine matches in the ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifiers in Sri Lanka. Throughout June and July later that year, she was appointed by the ICC to the ICC Women’s World Cup in the United Kingdom, where she stood in four women’s one-day Internationals and a further three as reserve umpire.

More recently, Polosak officiated in the ICC Women’s World T20 Cup in the West Indies throughout November 2018. This included tournament games in Guyana and the semi-final between England and India in Antigua.

This tournament had been complemented earlier by the ICC Women’s World T20 Qualifiers tournament in the Netherlands in July 2018, where she was appointed to nine fixtures.

Polosak has a total of 15 women’s one-day Internationals (two TV Umpire) and 16 women’s T20 internationals (one as a TV umpire) to her name.

Whilst Polosak continues to be a pioneer for female officiating in Australia on-field, including becoming the first female to umpire an Australian List A match in October 2017, she has also been a role model off-field for women joining the umpiring ranks.

In 2018-19, there was a record three females appointed across the 30-person State and Territory Umpire Panels in addition to Polosak’s appointment on the CA Supplementary Umpire Panel.

In December 2018, Polosak joined forces with South Australian Eloise Sheridan and became the first all-female umpiring pair to officiate in a professional match on Australian soil.

Polosak is also playing an important role in the increase of female umpiring representation across community cricket as an umpire educator with Cricket NSW.