'How I build my body' – Kate Cross

Meet the elite - Kate Cross is an England cricketer who plays domestically for North West Thunder. A fast bowler, she was the first female to be accepted into the Lancashire Academy in 2006 and was one of 18 women to be awarded the first professional contracts by the England Cricket Board in 2014, after helping England to win and retain the Ashes in the same year.

- By Joanna Ebsworth

MY JOURNEY

'I grew up in a hugely sporty family - dad was a professional footballer, my older sister trialled for England netball, and my older brother played cricket professionally - and we were always playing cricket in the back garden. My brother was an opening batter by trade and my sister was the wicket keeper, which explains how I became a bowler. I was always at my brother's local cricket club, too. From there, my story is a simple one of being in the right place at the right time, surrounded by the right people.

'I always wanted to play with the boys, and I was lucky that my brother's team let me in to play for the under-11s at nine years old. Politics came into play as I grew older and began challenging for a place on the senior team, mainly because there'd never been a girl playing for a first team in our league. But the Lancashire women's cricket set-up was quite well established, and I made my senior debut for them at 13-years-old which is quite ludicrous really.