ENGLAND and Lancashire cricketer Kate Cross says Bolton teams are "carrying the torch" for girls cricket ahead of the new county campaign.

Four Bolton-based players will be turning out for the Red Rose alongside Cross this season, which kicks off at home to Middlesex on Sunday, April 30, in Division One of the Royal London Women’s One-Day Championship.

Egerton's Meg Fairclough will once again captain the side and skipper club team-mates Bhumika Doshi and Shachi Pai, who recently moved to Egerton from Astley Bridge.

Horwich's Nalisha Patel has also made the 20-strong county first team, which will also compete in Division One of the Nat West Women’s County T20.

Patel and Cross have also been picked for the Lancashire Thunder team, which will take part in the new Kia Super League T20 competition during August.

"Bolton teams have obviously embraced women's cricket," said Bury-born Cross, whose dad David Cross won the FA Cup with West Ham and played up front for Wanderers.

"Growing up I played in the Central Lancs (for Heywood) and obviously there was the Bolton League – those were the two leagues that had girls playing in them.

"I have always felt Bolton has been a town that really pushed the women's game. The Bolton League, along with Egerton, who are now in the Greater Manchester League, are carrying the torch for girls cricket. They have never held girls back, which I think is really important."

Cross owes a lot of her early progress to the work done by John Stanworth at Lancashire, who she believes put his neck on the line to make sure she was the first girl to be admitted into the county academy.

He has since moved on to take up a prominent role in the ECB's women's academy, but has left behind a structure that has allowed Bolton's crop of young women to thrive.

They also benefited from the insistence of Lancashire women and girls' development officer Jen Barden that players should test themselves in the local men's game in a bid to speed up their development.

And many of our local teams in the Bolton League and GMCL have been willing participants in that.

"Lancashire as a county board have done very well to push women's cricket and have really supported us," added Cross.

"Being the first girl in the Lancs Academy was quite ground-breaking, and I had John Stanworth to thank for that because he was the coach that made me believe I could go further and was willing to almost get into trouble for some decisions he made because girls had previously never been in the Lancs Academy.

"But even if the opportunities are not initially there for girls, I feel we will always find a way.

"I grew up playing boys and men's cricket at Heywood and would never have wanted anything different, because that has helped me get to where I wanted to get to.

"I think the same can be said for all the girls that play in Bolton.

"And look at the results. The town has four girls in the county first team, that's nearly a third of the team taken up by girls from Bolton, which is just brilliant."