Kate Cross and the reflections on a summer that is finally about to start

NICK FRIEND: For Cross and her England teammates, these have been complex months. At times, they have trained without a concrete goal; series against India and South Africa fell by the wayside. But as September approaches, summer is ready to begin

There were seven days between the news that South Africa would no longer be touring England in September and the subsequent announcement on Tuesday that West Indies would fill their void.

This summer has been a season of gratitude. Players have spoken regularly of their renewed appreciation for the sport they play and the life it allows them to lead; the ECB have been widely praised for the proactivity of their response to a global health crisis; and as for those who have been prepared to travel across the world in order to get the game moving once more, their collective courage has been treated with unanimous acclaim.

Nasser Hussain began Sky Sports’ first return to live coverage by stressing of England’s visiting teams: “I think we should never ever forget it. We applaud your bravery for coming over and putting cricket first.”

A similar feeling is engulfing the thoughts now of Kate Cross. For England Women – and for the women’s game more widely, the wait has been even longer. The international campaign will finally get underway on September 21, with the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy making its debut on this August Bank Holiday weekend.

For Cross, this feels like “the best-case scenario”. There have been times, not least when India and then South Africa cancelled their respective trips, that the outlook for 2020 looked far bleaker. That is not to mention the postponement for 12 months of the upcoming World Cup – a decision Cross and her teammates discovered via Twitter.

And so, there is a genuine sense of affection and appreciation for Stafanie Taylor and her side who have signed up – against the odds and against the clock – for five T20Is in the final week before October. So quickly has this series been put together that the visitors have had little time to practise or train as a squad.

“The West Indies have just been unbelievable throughout all of this,” Cross tells The Cricketer. “I just think it’s testament to them that they are equally as keen to get cricket on as the ECB are.

“I just think that you can’t thank teams like that enough for traveling at a time when it’s so uncertain. I’m not sure how I would feel about traveling abroad at the minute, so you have to take your hat off and be really grateful that they’re going to come over and give us an opportunity.”

^{Cross and her England teammates found out about the postponement of the World Cup via Twitter}

It has been a demanding time to be an England Women’s cricketer. Gradually, the summer lost another piece of context with each cancelation, while Cross admits that training became a mental challenge as concrete goals were replaced with question marks.

“India not coming over wasn’t the end of the world because we still had South Africa,” she explains. “But when South Africa pulled out, it kind of felt like we were getting to a point where there wasn’t enough time to organise anything.

“There was a big worry. It was quite a difficult couple of days as a team motivation-wise. You’re in the middle of that bubble in Derbyshire, thinking: ‘Why are we here? What are we training for?’ It was pretty difficult actually.”

She adds that the thought of the series not going ahead had hardly been through her mind, such was the nature of the bio-secure environment in which England have been based, separated from the outside world.

“You could see what hard work it had been and how different Derbyshire looked from when we would normally play there,” she says. “Once all that was in place, I was thinking: ‘There’s no reason for a team not to come over now.’

“I didn’t put into consideration the fact that their government might not allow it. It had all been such positive talk about us playing that I just assumed that we would be.”

Even once the summer comes to a belated end, the future will remain unclear, with winter plans still unconfirmed as other countries work out the feasibility of hosting their own international action.

“At the minute, it just feels like a massive bonus that we’re actually going to play some cricket and get the women’s game back out there,” Cross says. “It had finished on such a high at the T20 World Cup, so it felt like such a shame. It felt like the wind had been taken out of our sails a little bit.

“I think we’re just in a predicament, where you just have to enjoy what you get when you get it and not look too far ahead. Otherwise, it can be quite daunting not knowing when the next series might be.”

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It provides the next month with an additional significance on multiple levels. Clare Connor, ECB managing director of women’s cricket, spoke openly at the beginning of lockdown about the economic realities of the situation and the importance of the men’s international summer to safeguarding the game.

She also stated that she would be “devastated if there was no international women’s cricket”, especially on the back of a transformative fortnight for the game in Australia just prior to the global coronavirus outbreak and in the midst of a major restructure of the domestic game in England.

And having accomplished the immense goal of protecting the men’s schedule, Connor’s sadness was evident when she declared herself “immensely disappointed” following the news of South Africa’s withdrawal. It makes the work that followed – less than a fortnight from start to finish, according to Cricket West Indies chief executive Johnny Grave – all the more remarkable.

It was announced on Wednesday that Sky Sports would televise the final of the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy, 24 hours after it was revealed that BBC and Sky would simulcast the third West Indies T20I – the first time women’s international cricket in the UK has been on free-to-air television since the 1993 Women’s World Cup final.

“It’s just ground-breaking stuff going on at a time where you think there couldn’t be anything ground-breaking,” Cross says, praising the national governing body.

Women’s cricket returned in mid-August with Austria and Germany facing off, but on the biggest stage it has not been seen since an 86,174-strong audience filled the MCG for the T20 World Cup final.

“There’s been so much talk about women’s sport getting lost in this pandemic,” she adds. “And let’s be honest, there has certainly been less women’s sport compared to the men’s side of things. But unfortunately, that’s just how it goes at the minute.

“There’s still a lot of work to be done in those aspects, but I think the ECB can really hold their heads high and be proud of how they’ve supported women in this time. People were getting made redundant all over the world but the ECB still backed the women’s game and gave out those retainer contracts, so I think all the way through they’ve still done their absolute best to support the women’s game.

^{Cross is keen to praise the ECB for their commitment to the women's game through the coronavirus pandemic}

“Not as a cricketer but as a female athlete, I saw how much effort was going into getting men’s sport on and then the women’s stuff seemed immediately to get cancelled. Again, I think that’s where the ECB can be really proud of what they’ve done.

“I think it really became clear how governing bodies of all sports generally felt about the women’s side of their sport. And I think it was – if anything – an opportunity for a lot of sports to really push the women’s side of their game. Unfortunately, some people have missed those opportunities.

“But for us, once we knew that we had the backing of the ECB, it almost became business as usual. We started training again – the first bubble was to see how you were and where you were at in terms of fitness. There was no pressure, but I think when we turn up at Loughborough next week, the expectation will be there to pick up from what we’ve done.”

The delay to the start of the women’s season has – at least – given Cross the chance to fully recover from a serious ankle problem picked up in a pre-match warmup during the early stages of England’s T20 World Cup campaign. “It was literally learning how to walk and run again for the first two or three weeks of lockdown,” she recalls.

And while the injury handed her “an acute focus” during the monotony of lockdown, Cross admits as well to struggling at times with the combination.

The 28-year-old last played competitive cricket for England on December 20, 2019, in a T20I against Pakistan in Kuala Lumpur – and even that game was a dead rubber of sorts, with Heather Knight’s team already having won the first two matches of the series. The wait, then, has been tiresome, even if it afforded her some rare family time.

“I really struggled during the real lockdown phase because I just thought that there actually just wasn’t an endpoint in sight,” she reflects. “We didn’t know when we’d be able to play cricket. The men’s team hadn’t been confirmed at that point. It was just so up in the air that I found that period hardest.”

Cross has spoken openly in recent times about her challenges with mental health, teaming up with long-time teammate Alex Hartley during this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week to discuss he impact of life on the sidelines in international sport as part of a BBC Sport feature.

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Looking back on how she coped during this summer’s enforced hiatus, she acknowledges a new-found perspective.

“I think everyone was going through the same thing, which made me feel a little bit more comfortable – you knew you weren’t the only one feeling like this,” she says. “But it was just such a unique period for everyone.

“With the injury, I had so many weeks where I was like: ‘Right, I’m not going to play cricket again. The ankle isn’t getting any better. I’m just going to pack it in now.’ It’s such an extreme thought looking back, because obviously it’s going to take time for your tendons to heal.

“But I think everyone had those days, regardless of sport or whatever you do for a living. I think everyone was in that same situation. I think it resets your thinking about what really matters; cricket is a massive part of my life, don’t get me wrong, and it’s my job and I love representing England, but sometimes there are bigger things going on in the world.

“It just put everything into perspective – the World Cup semi-final, for example, and being booted out because of the rain. It felt like the world was ending at the time, but then you look back and it was a game of cricket. It was an opportunity to lift a trophy and play at the MCG, but it’s not the end of the world.”

And now, she can look ahead once more to returning to the field, with the launch of the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy. Cross, alongside her England colleagues, will be available – at the very least – for the first two rounds of fixtures. For those not selected as part of Lisa Keightley’s final squad for the T20I series, they will return for more domestic action.

Her Thunder side play their first two games at Trent Bridge and Edgbaston – far cries from the more modest settings of her early days as an amateur cricketer for Lancashire. “It’s just amazing to think how far the game has come,” she laughs.

^{Cross will represent Thunder in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy alongside her close friend Alex Hartley}

Cross remains centrally contracted, but as she talks through the benefits of a wide-ranging domestic revamp, her thoughts turn to the tranche of professional contracts that come with it. Twenty-five women were handed retainer deals in June, with a further 15 to follow later in the year. Among them was Hartley, Cross’ great mate and podcast co-host. She lost her England contract last October and, by her own admission, briefly struggled for a purpose.

“She is still now a professional cricketer,” Cross stresses. “She’s not earning the same money that she was earning because we’re not there yet, but she’s still a domestic professional cricketer. Mentally, for people’s wellbeing, that’s a really big deal.

“Even for me, when I think about my contract or if I had something that brought me out of the international game, in the back of my mind I always thought I needed to have a Masters or a university degree because I wouldn’t be a professional cricketer anymore if I lost my England deal.

“But now, there’s almost an element of a support network, where if that happens to anyone else, you can still fall back into these regional contracts. It’s only a good thing. In five years’ time, we’ll hopefully be in an even stronger position.”

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