England have “cultural” issues to address in the wake of the disastrous 16-0 Women’s Ashes whitewash, Kate Cross has said.
The England and Wales Cricket Board is conducting an extensive review of the series, to which all players have had the opportunity to contribute, which will be compiled by Clare Connor, the managing director of women’s cricket.
Cross was one of the senior players on tour and although she did not play because of a back injury, she has opened up about the unravelling of the series in Australia and the implications of being so comprehensively outplayed.
“Obviously with a 16-0 it’s hard to sit here and see much positive, but I do believe that as a team we do a lot of things really well,” said the bowler. “I think there are areas that we obviously need to address, from cricket points of view, but probably from cultural points of view as well, so I’m hoping that this review – I don’t know what’s going to come of it – but I’m hoping that these are the things that will get addressed and pave the way for the next generation to want to play for England.
“Because ultimately I think that we might have lost a few fans in the last couple of months, which is really sad from our point of view. I think the 2023 Ashes was how good it can be, and the 2025 Ashes was how bad it can be.
“So as a professional sportsperson you’ve got to ride that wave and we as cricketers know how bad that tour was, so we’re not going to try and sugar-coat that. But I’d like people to fall back in love with English cricket, which I know is something that England men and England women haven’t necessarily done very well this winter.”
Although Cross did not expand on what the cultural aspects affecting the tour were, there were a number of external factors that appeared to affect the side. Sophie Ecclestone refused to do an interview with former player turned broadcaster Alex Hartley, who then criticised some players for giving her the “cold shoulder”.
There were also criticisms of the team’s fitness during the T20 World Cup that were never fully addressed by the coaching staff, who did acknowledge a shortcoming in athleticism compared to the Australian team.
Cross sustained a serious back injury before the trip and despite travelling in the hope of being fit for the Test match and undergoing epidurals, she was ultimately ruled out of the game at the MCG.
“My reflections on my trip were quite unusual,” said Cross, who was speaking at the Professional Cricketers’ Association Women’s Cricket Impact Report event at Lord’s. “I didn’t get to play a game of cricket. But as a 33-year-old getting ruled out of an Ashes series was devastating.
“Ultimately as players we still want to try and get young girls interested in the game, and us losing quite drastically isn’t going to do that, so we’re going to try and have a real look at how we want to portray ourselves as a team moving forwards and try to get a bit of love back from our fans.”
Reflecting on the Ashes series as a whole, Cross said: “It was unprecedented how poorly we performed over there.
“I don’t think anyone probably anticipated the Ashes turning out the way it did, and obviously there was a huge disappointment that came with that.
“But I think as a group of players now we don’t know what’s going to come of this review, but I think it motivates you to be a better group of players and a better version of yourself without sounding too cliché.
“We didn’t go over there and play good cricket for any part of that tour so we can’t come away from that saying we want to ‘inspire and entertain’ [the team mantra] when we’re not doing our jobs as well as we should have done. So with the negative, hopefully there’s a big positive that comes with that.”
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