Kate Cross, the England pacer, has divulged her surpirse at being signed by Northern Superchargers in Thursday’s Hundred draft, having captained Manchester Originals in the competition’s first two seasons.
Cross had spoken to the Originals ahead of the draft, who gave her a verbal guarantee that they would sign her for £25,000 with their second pick if she was still available. But the Superchargers gazumped them by using their first pick to sign her for £31,250.
Since the Originals had already used their first pick to sign South Africa’s Laura Wolvaardt, they were unable to use their Right-To-Match (RTM) card to bring Cross back – much to her surprise, as she watched on from her regional team Thunder’s pre-season tour to Mumbai.
Here is what Kate Cross had to say about being a part of the Hundred
In a podcast with Alex Hartley, Cross said, “I didn’t look at the money at all. I wasn’t bothered about that. But I knew I wasn’t playing for Manchester, and I’d been picked up by their rivals, the Superchargers, who are based in Yorkshire. For a Lancashire girl, it’s quite a big move…”
She further added, “It’s just such a big thing to get my head around, the fact that I won’t be playing in the environment that I’ve grown up playing in. For a long time, all my cricket has been in one environment, one club, one place. And then I’m just over the Pennines! It’s going to be weird playing against Manchester; it’s going to be so weird not playing for Manchester.”
Kate Cross continued, “It’s so strange to find out information at the same time as everyone else. Whenever we normally get this information, we find out two weeks before it goes out to the public: selections, all that kind of stuff. It comes out in public and you’ve dealt with it, you’ve processed it, whereas we found out when everyone else found out, which is the thing I’m struggling with the most. To watch yourself literally get sold live on TV, and for a price that someone values you at… I can’t even describe that feeling.”
Kate Cross and her woes with the auctions continue
Each women’s team in the Hundred has eight confirmed players after Thursday’s draft. They will now fill their squads over the coming months, with their remaining contracts agreed mutually on the open market.
Kate further said, “It was awful really, wasn’t it? The WPL auction was gross and it was equally as awful on Thursday. It is so strange to find out information at the same time as everyone else. That is the thing I am struggling with the most.”
It has done what it said on the tin and evened out the teams,” said Cross, who was part of the first Originals squad with Hartley in 2021. “There was a lot of annoyance from fans about allegiances and you follow teams because of players and we’ve had a lot of messages about being the OGs (Originals) at Manchester and now neither of us play there. It is going to look different”, concluded Cross.
