Katherine Helen Brunt is an English cricketer, a member of the current England women's team, and England's greatest ever fast bowler. She was named England women's Cricketer of the Year in 2006 and again in 2010.
Career
An aggressive right arm fast bowler with a classical action, she played for Yorkshire age group sides before taking a break from cricket at the age of 17 due to fitness concerns. She went to Penistone Grammar School, Barnsley, South Yorkshire. She returned for the Test against New Zealand in 2004 and was a member of the 2005 England World Cup side in South Africa. She took 14 wickets and scored her maiden half century as England won the Ashes in 2005 and opened the bowling in England's successful 2009 World Cup Campaign. She was Woman of the Match in the 2009 Twenty/20 World championship final at Lords, taking 3 wickets for 6 runs in her 4 over opening spell and took a career best 6 for 69 in the one off Ashes Test which followed. Her best figures in one day internationals came in the final of the NatWest Quadrangular Series of 2011 where her 5 for 18 bowled England to victory over Australia. She is the holder of one of the first tranche of 18 ECB central contracts for women players, which were announced in April 2014. Brunt was a member of the winning women's team at the 2017 Women's Cricket World Cup held in England. In October 2018, she was named in England's squad for the 2018 ICC Women's World Twenty20 tournament in the West Indies. However, she was ruled out of the tournament due to a back injury and was replaced by Fran Wilson. In February 2019, she was awarded a full central contract by the England and Wales Cricket Board for 2019. In June 2019, the ECB named her in England's squad for their opening match against Australia to contest the Women's Ashes. In December 2019, in the opening match of England's series against Pakistan in Malaysia, Brunt took her 150th wicket in WODI matches. In January 2020, she was named in England's squad for the 2020 ICC Women's T20 World Cup in Australia. On 18 June 2020, Brunt was named in a squad of 24 players to begin training ahead of international women's fixtures starting in England following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Personal life
Brunt's nicknames are "Brunty" and "Nunny". In 2015, she explained to sports journalist Clare Balding that she is known as Nunny because she had set off a fire alarm during a residential cricket course at the Benedictine-run Ampleforth College. In October 2019, Brunt announced her engagement to fellow England cricketerNatalie Sciver. They were scheduled to get married in September 2020, but their wedding was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
