She made the announcement via Twitter as she put out a tweet expressing her joy which came with the honour of leading Thunder Cricket and Lancashire Cricket over the past few seasons. She described her decision to step down as the captain of the unit as timely and appropriate.
Hartley expressed her desire to help the side develop and flourish in different ways.
Although she delivered plenty of stupendous performances during her tenure as skipper, her best and the one that she most probably will cherish forever was her four-wicket haul that came against Lightning in a winning cause at Liverpool during the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy 2020 edition in September.
“I am so proud to have captained Thunder over the last couple of seasons and the decision to step down as captain has been a difficult one to make. However, I feel that now is the right time for me to step back and allow somebody else to take up the opportunity,” said Hartley.
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Hartley was a part of the English squad that won the World Cup back in 2017 on home soil. She also hosts a podcast named 'No Balls' with fellow Thunder team mate and England player Kate Cross.
Thunder will be soon seen in action as the Charlotte Edwards Cup begins next month in May. They'll start their campaign with a game against Southern Vipers at the 1
st Central County Ground on Saturday 14 May.