At 21, Katherine Fraser is one of the youngest players on Scotland’s cricket squad, but she’s also one of the most experienced. Katherine has been in and around the international squad since she was 14, becoming a key player for the side.
She got her start playing internationally while attending Erskine Stewart Melville, joining the School in S1.
“I had begun playing cricket at the Boroughmuir club aged around nine,” she says. “By the time I got to MES I was already pretty focused on the sport and the teachers and coaches there helped me to take my game to the next level. My cricket commitments soon grew and grew and everyone at the school was really understanding around that and helped me to balance my studies and my sport.”
Katherine, who now plays for Durham, started out as a spin bowler, but these days she also opens the batting in the T20 format of the game and has taken the change of role in stride. To date, she’s played 60 T20 internationals and 11 One Day Internationals for Scotland.
In 2024, she was part of the first ever Scotland women’s team to qualify for a T20 World Cup when they played in the showpiece event in the UAE, and now, two years on, they will be back again in the 2026 version of the competition to take on the world’s best between 12 June and 5 July in England.
Katherine’s status as a world-class cricketer has made her a major role model, encouraging many Erskine Stewart Melville students to pick up the bat and ball. With so much interest, the School’s cricket programme has stayed consistently strong since Katherine’s time here. In 2025, The Cricketer named MES one of the UK’s Top 20 all-girls cricket schools for the fifth consecutive year.
“A lot of eyes will be on us this summer and if we can inspire young boys and girls to give cricket a try and play it with smiles on their faces then that is a great thing,” Katherine says.
This year, the MES 1st XI, MES U15 and SMC 1st XI cricket teams have all qualified for the Scottish Cup semi-finals.
Players and coaches will be watching Katherine closely as Team Scotland takes on Ireland in its first World Cup game on 13 June in Manchester. The Scots will have some tough competition in their opening pool, also facing England, West Indies, Sri Lanka, and defending champs New Zealand.
But the squad is off to a good start, beating the Netherlands in a warm-up game on 6 June in Derby. Katherine played a pivotal role in this game bowling a double strike.
To progress to the World Cup semi-finals, Scotland will need to finish top two in its pool.
“Over the last two years we feel that we have grown as players and people, and we know that we are a better side now with a real belief in our abilities,” Katherine says. “We want to show everyone what we are all about on the biggest stage of all and to be able to do that in England with our friends and family watching from the stands will mean the world. I cannot wait!”
