Kathleen Cross (born 28 June 1957) is a New Zealand former

cricket umpire In cricket, an umpire (from the Old French ''nompere'' meaning not a peer, i.e. not a member of one of the teams, impartial) is a person who has the authority to make decisions about events on the cricket field according to the ''Laws of Cricket ...

who stood in sixty-nine international matches. In 2018, Cross retired from international umpiring at the end of the

Women's Twenty20 International Women's Twenty20 International (WT20I) is the shortest form of women's international cricket. A women's Twenty20 International is a 20 overs-per-side cricket match between two of the International Cricket Council (ICC) members. The first Twent ...

series between New Zealand and the West Indies.

Early life

Kathleen Cross was born in

Taumarunui Taumarunui is a small town in the King Country of the central North Island of New Zealand. It is on an alluvial plain set within rugged terrain on the upper reaches of the Whanganui River, 65 km south of Te Kuiti and 55 km west of ...

in the

Manawatū-Whanganui Manawatū-Whanganui (; spelled Manawatu-Wanganui prior to 2019) is a region in the lower half of the North Island of New Zealand, whose main population centres are the cities of Palmerston North and Whanganui. It is administered by the Manawat ...

region, New Zealand. She is a member of the

Ngāti Maniapoto Ngāti Maniapoto is an iwi (tribe) based in the Waikato-Waitomo region of New Zealand's North Island. It is part of the Tainui confederation, the members of which trace their whakapapa (genealogy) back to people who arrived in New Zealand on the ...

iwi Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori roughly means "people" or "nation", and is often translated as "tribe", or "a confederation of tribes". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, an ...

Umpiring career

After giving up playing, Cross began umpiring cricket during the 1998/99 cricket season. Cross was the New Zealand representative for the

2000 Women's Cricket World Cup The 2000 CricInfo Women's Cricket World Cup was an international cricket tournament played in New Zealand from 29 November to 23 December 2000. It was the seventh edition of the Women's Cricket World Cup, and the second to be hosted by New Zealand ...

. In 2002, she became the first woman to be selected in a Test match umpiring team when she was named as fourth umpire for a match between

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

and

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in Wellington. Cross was now the first woman to be selected to the

International Cricket Council The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the world governing body of cricket. Headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, its members are List of International Cricket Council members, 108 national associations, with 12 List of Internation ...

(ICC) Associate and Affiliate panel of international umpires. She was one of the eight umpires to stand in matches in the

2016 ICC World Cricket League Division Four The 2016 ICC World Cricket League Division Four was an international limited-overs cricket tournament held in Los Angeles from 29 October – 5 November 2016. It was the fifth edition of WCL Division Four, and the first World Cricket League tou ...

tournament. In January 2017, she was one of four female umpires named by the ICC to stand in matches in the

2017 Women's Cricket World Cup Qualifier The 2017 ICC Women's Cricket World Cup Qualifier was an international women's cricket tournament that was held in Colombo, Sri Lanka, from 7 to 21 February 2017. It was the final stage of the qualification process for the 2017 World Cup in Engl ...

. Cross has been an umpire in 22 Women's Cricket World Cup matches, the most by any umpire in the history of the

Women's Cricket World Cup The ICC Women's Cricket World Cup is the sport's oldest world championship, with the first tournament held in England in 1973. Matches are played as One Day Internationals (ODIs) over 50 overs per team, while there is also another champion ...

. On 16 March 2018, in the

fixture between New Zealand and the West Indies at the

Bay Oval Bay Oval is a cricket ground in Mount Maunganui, Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty area of New Zealand. The ground was built in Blake Park and opened in 2005. Bay Oval has hosted men's and women's international limited overs matches since 2014. It h ...

, in

Mount Maunganui Mount Maunganui (, ) is a major residential, commercial and industrial suburb of the Tauranga metropolitan area, located on a peninsula to the north-east of Tauranga's city centre. It was an independent town from Tauranga until the completio ...

, she stood in her final match as an umpire before retiring.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cross, Kathy 1957 births Living people New Zealand women cricketers New Zealand cricket umpires Women cricket umpires Ngāti Maniapoto people New Zealand Māori sportspeople People from Taumarunui New Zealand women referees and umpires