England’s women’s cricket team endured a humiliating 16-0 whitewash in the 2024-25 multi-format Ashes, suffering defeats in the ODI and T20I legs as well as the one-off Test. This marked Australia’s sixth consecutive Ashes retention since 2015. The disastrous campaign came just months after England’s group-stage exit at the T20 World Cup in October.
Critics, including former cricketers Alex Hartley, Nasser Hussain, and Sir Alastair Cook did not hold back, dissecting England’s struggles in brutal detail. Even the ECB’s Deputy CEO, Clare Connor, acknowledged the crisis, promising an honest review of the team’s performances.
Amid mounting criticism, England seamer Kate Cross, who missed the series due to a back injury and subsequently withdrew from the 2025 WPL to focus on injury rehab, has now weighed in on the team’s performance, expressing her views on what needs to change moving forward.
Speaking on the awaited review from ECB, she said, “There’s areas that we probably know we need to address from cricket points of view, but also from probably cultural points of view as well. 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.”
Announced by England Women’s Cricket managing director, Clare Connor following the Ashes whitewash, the review has involved player interviews and is set to release its findings later this month.
Cross admitted that professional athletes must accept scrutiny for their performances and expressed hope that fans would “fall back in love with English cricket” after a difficult winter for both the men’s and women’s teams.
She said that England’s Ashes campaign in Australia was especially disheartening given the excitement and optimism generated during their 2023 home series, where they had fought back from a Test defeat to level the series 8-8 with strong performances in the white-ball matches. Comparing the two, she admitted that while the 2023 Ashes showcased England at their best, the 2025 edition highlighted just how badly things could go, adding that the team may have lost some fan support in the process.
As for her own future, Cross reflected on the frustration of missing the Ashes due to injury. Having first made her mark during England’s last Ashes series win in 2013-14, she hopes to extend her career under the new tiered county structure, which promises greater player support.
“My reflections on my trip were quite unusual. 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,” she said, at the Professional Cricketers’ Association Women’s Cricket Impact Report event at Lord’s, adding that the experience has made her rethink how she wants to manage her career moving forward.
Beyond England’s on-field struggles, Cross also spoke about gender pay disparity in domestic cricket, particularly in The Hundred, where the pay gap widened instead of shrinking this year. While the highest-earning men’s players will now receive £200,000, the women’s top earners will make just £65,000.
“I would hope to see that it happens quite quickly, especially with how vocal the players were about the pay gap getting bigger,” she said. While she acknowledged The Hundred’s role in promoting women’s cricket, she emphasized the need for continued financial investment in the women’s game.
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