Former England international Kate Cross has announced she will retire from cricket at the end of the current summer, bringing to a close a career spanning more than a decade at the top level of the women's game. The 34-year-old seamer, who has continued playing domestic cricket for Lancashire since losing her England contract last year, said it was "incredibly hard" to contemplate leaving a sport that has defined much of her life, while expressing gratitude for having played professionally at the highest level.

Cross played 102 times for England between 2013 and 2025, making her debut aged 22 in a T20 in the West Indies before featuring in the side's 2013-14 Ashes win, England's most recent Women's Ashes victory. She fell out of the team during the 2017 World Cup era but later returned as a regular fixture in the Test and one-day sides, before being dropped by new coach Charlotte Edwards last summer; her final international appearance came in an ODI against India in July of that year. She finishes with 25 Test wickets, 101 in ODIs and 14 in T20s, and will play out the rest of the domestic season with Lancashire, including a fixture against The Blaze on Sunday.