Kate Cross and Alex Hartley said they received death threats and online abuse after questioning the Icc Women's T20 World Cup Schedule for the Women's T20 World Cup 2026 semi-finals. Cross said the backlash followed a post about the ICC setup, and her comments quickly turned into a personal attack.
Cross said she woke up to 450 comments on one Instagram post about the semi-final scheduling, far above the usual 30 per post. She added that the reaction did not match the point they were making.
Kate Cross on Instagram
“I woke up this morning to post about the ICC scheduling for the semi-finals to 450 comments on that Instagram post. Normally, we will get 30 per post. There's been a little bit of confusion because what we said doesn't warrant death threats and abuse.”
Cross also said, “It feels like we've cleared that up. Thanks everyone that has got in touch and supported us. That's been lovely reading all those (messages). It's mad, isn't it? We spoke about social media so much on this platform but let's just be a bit kinder. Like I wasn't slagging off India as a cricket team,” and then added, “I was just saying 'I don't think that any tournament should be based on a cricket team getting through a semi-final'. Turns out that wasn't right anyway. To the person that quote us, if you are going to quote us, quote what we say don't quote what you think we've said. The people have opened up to their interpretation,”
Alex Hartley and the ICC
Hartley said on No Balls: The Cricket Podcast, “We've been getting death threats and abuse online” after the pair raised questions about the schedule. She later said, “I've actually spoked to somebody at the ICC to clarify everything that has been said. This is what the ICC said, 'We'd like to clarify that this has nothing to do with India and that this has been done to optimise spectatorship in the UK as much as the global viewing.' So, my interpretation of that is that the 6:30 start is for the UK audience,”
That clarification sits alongside the ICC playing conditions, which give the first semi-final to the top-placed team from Group A against the second-placed team from Group B on June 30, and the second semi-final to the Group B winners against the second-placed team from Group A on July 2. The same conditions say India would play in the first semi-final if they qualified, regardless of whether they finished first or second in Group A.
The start times follow that split: 2:30 PM local time for the first semi-final and 6:30 PM local time for the second. Hartley’s explanation points to a scheduling decision built around spectatorship in the UK and wider viewing, but the backlash shows how quickly a tournament rule can spill from cricket debate into abuse aimed at the players who raised it.
