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.
Cross has spent her whole career playing for Lancashire or teams affiliated with them, like Thunder and the Originals. “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,” she said. “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.”
“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.”
Cross on the women’s Hundred draft being broadcast publicly
Thursday’s draft was the first time that a recruitment process in the women’s Hundred has been broadcast publicly, and Cross said it had been difficult to deal with hearing about a surprise move at the same time as the rest of the world.
“It’s so strange to find out information at the same time as everyone else,” she said. “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.”
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.