Kate Cross will retire from professional cricket at the end of this season. The 34-year-old became the first woman to join Lancashire's Academy and made her senior county debut for Lancashire in 2005 at just 13. During a 21-year spell with the Red Rose, she took 239 wickets across all formats.

Cross made her England debut in October 2013 and won 102 international caps, taking 140 wickets. Only three months after her debut she helped England retain the Ashes in Australia in 2014, and was later named England captain for their white-ball tour of Ireland in 2024.

Ten years after that Ashes triumph, Cross was ranked the world's second-best ODI bowler and passed 400 career wickets across First-Class, List A and T20 cricket. She is one of only eight players to have taken 100 ODI wickets for England, reaching the milestone on her 100th appearance against West Indies in 2025 as the second-fastest English women's player to do so.

In 2025 she won two trophies with Lancashire plus The Hundred title with Sunrisers Leeds. "Retiring hasn't been an easy decision, but it feels like the right time