Player Profile
Wicket-taker, history-maker and now professional trophy-winner, legendary Lancashire seamer Kate Cross continues to makes waves.
Cross has captained both the Red Rose and England, the latter bringing us to one of her career highlights.
In September 2024, she was appointed as England’s captain for a senior white-ball tour of Ireland.
That came as part of a mixed few months for Cross, who missed the Women’s Ashes in Australia at the start of 2025 through injury. She was part of the squad but was unable to make it onto the field because of a back problem sustained whilst touring South Africa in late 2024.
Then, the 2025 summer was certainly a memorable one, though that rollercoaster element remained.
She helped Lancashire win the Vitality T20 County Cup and Metro Bank One-Day Cup double, added to winning The Hundred with the Northern Superchargers. They were her first professional trophies.
Cross, aged 34, claimed 28 wickets in 24-all format appearances for Lancashire, added to one half-century with the bat.
She took her 200th all-format wicket for all Red Rose teams, professional and non-professional, and was named as the 1864 members’ women’s player-of-the-year.
Unfortunately, however, amidst all of that, she lost her England central contract and was left out of their 50-over World Cup squad in October.
England’s loss, though, promises to be Lancashire’s gain, and she is contracted at Emirates Old Trafford through until the end of 2026.
In 2026, she could well reach 500 all-format career wickets. She is currently sat on 471.
Cross learnt her trade at Heywood and has played first-team cricket for the Greater Manchester Cricket League club. She has gone on to represent England on 102 occasions across all formats since debuting in October 2013.
In 2025, she became only the eighth player to take 100 ODI wickets for England, and she has struck 140 times for them across the formats.
Cross made her senior county debut for Lancashire at the age of 13 in 2005.
She was part of the Red Rose team which won the historic double in 2017; the One-Day Cup and the Twenty20 Cup.
In 2006, Cross blazed a trail when she was awarded a place on Lancashire’s Academy - the first woman to join.
In early 2014, Cross helped England win the Ashes in Australia - their last success in that series to date. On Test debut, at Perth, she claimed 3-35 in each innings of a victory, including the notable wickets of Alex Blackwell and Meg Lanning.
A few months later, she was handed a central contract by England, amongst the first 18 ever handed out by the England and Wales Cricket Board.
Cross has had her difficult moments, at one stage falling out of love with cricket and considering giving up the game
altogether.
Watching England win the 2017 World Cup final against India at Lord’s from the stands was a huge motivator for what you could almost now say is the second stage of her career having previously lost her place.
That she was an ever-present in their title defence in New Zealand through the early stages of 2022, which ended in a final defeat to Australia at Christchurch, will have been a hugely proud moment for her and her sports mad family.
Her brother Bobby and sister Jenny are both involved in the game, Bobby as a prolific league batter and administrator and Jenny as a physio.
Her father David is a former professional football striker for the likes of West Ham and Bolton. He won the 1980 FA Cup with the Hammers.
Kate enjoyed a particular impressive 2021 and 2022 and claimed 5-34 in an ODI win over India at Taunton in June 2021.
She bettered that return against Ireland in Belfast in September 2024, returning 6-30 in a 50-over. Captain Fantastic, hey!
That six-for is her best haul across all formats for England.
Around her international commitments, she has been a key part of the Lancashire’s drive for success, not just as an opening bowler but as a lower order batter.
Having progressed through the age-groups, she has gone on to take 213 wickets for all Lancashire teams, including both non-professional and professional. That includes Thunder in regional cricket and before that Lancashire Thunder in the Kia Super League days.
In 2024, Cross went beyond 400 career wickets in all first-class, List A and T20 cricket and was ranked by the ICC as the second best ODI bowler in the world.
In the 2023, Cross reached the final of The Hundred with the Headingley based Superchargers. She had moved to them following two years with the Manchester Originals, whom she captained. She claimed 10 wickets in as many appearances for the Superchargers as they were beaten in the final by Southern Brave.
In 2025, when they gained revenge by beating the Brave in the final, Cross claimed a key 2-23 and 15 wickets in all through the competition. She was its third leading wicket-taker.
Back to 2023, and she claimed a vital seven wickets in four appearances, including a best of 3-48 in the final ODI - a victory, as England drew the multi-format Ashes series on home soil with Australia, 8-8. It was described as one of the greatest ever women’s series.
Less than a fortnight before that aforementioned six-wicket haul against Ireland in early September 2024, she claimed 6-40 for Thunder in a Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy win over South East Stars at Beckenham, her best return across the five-year regional era.
Cross also co-hosts the BBC No Balls podcast with ex-Lancs team-mate Alex Hartley and is also a regular TV commentator for Sky Sports around her playing commitments.
In September 2023, she was appointed as a non-executive director of the Lancashire Foundation, her aim to help them increase participation in the game.