Mary Waldron appointed to ICC's development panel of umpires

Ireland's wicket-keeper batswoman Mary Waldron was appointed to the International Cricket Council's (ICC) development panel of umpires on Wednesday.

Waldron is one of only eight women in world cricket to have been appointed to the position and she is the first woman from Ireland to achieve this feat.

"I am delighted to be appointed to the ICC Panel. To be honest, I fell into umpiring almost by accident five or so years ago, when working as a community development officer at Malahide Cricket Club, but have developed a love for it since," ICC quoted Waldron as saying.

"I have spent a number of Irish winters heading out to play club cricket in Australia, and in 2015, I sought out an umpire training course with Cricket Tasmania and it went from there. I can't thank Roy Loh and Cricket Tasmania enough for the help they gave me starting out, and now SACA and Cricket Leinster for the continued support and opportunity to umpire at higher levels," she added.

Waldron has played two sports for Ireland. She has represented the country in both cricket and football.

She has achieved many firsts in her career. She became the first female umpire to officiate in a men's List A match between Ireland Wolves and Bangladesh A last year.

She also became the one half of the first female pair of umpires to officiate in a men's first-grade premier cricket match in Australia.

Waldron said it was her ultimate goal to make it to the list of ICC's elite panel of umpires but she also said that there are still few aspirations in her playing career that she wants to fulfill first.

"I don't have a bucket list as such, but I went to the World T20 finals in Eden Gardens, Kolkata, in 2016," Waldron said.

"Obviously I'd like to play in a World Cup final there, but the atmosphere was electric and I did think at the time I'd like to umpire there one day. Oh, and umpiring in a Test match, though, again, I'd rather play in one first," she added.