Nagpur: Vidarbha Cricket Association’s Pawan Halwane topped the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) umpiring exam that was held in June. With 147.5 marks out of 150, Akola’s Halwane led the chart of 26 candidates who were declared as passed by the BCCI on Thursday.
Vikrant Deshpande (130), an employee of Railways, is the other VCA candidate to have cleared the exams. All those who have passed the exam will be inducted in the BCCI Umpire Panel, a BCCI release stated. There was more joy for the association as two women cleared the Match Referee exams with flying colours. Soniya Rojoriya emerged as second topper from all over India and was followed by Nama Khobragade at the third spot. They scored 83.5 and 81.5 marks (out of 100) respectively.
Gold Rate
26 July 2025
Soniya, who was head coach of a women’s team in the maiden edition of VPTL that concluded recently, was just one mark behind topper RSPB’s Shiva Kant Shukla. This is the second instance that a person from Vidarbha has topped the umpire’s exam. Nitin Pandit was the first one to do so in the 2008 exams.
