An analytical approach is presented to evaluate the effect of cross-polarization in a polarization diversity MIMO satellite to ground link. Analysis is developed to found the interference due to cross-polarization in a 2 ∗ 2 MIMO satellite link. The expression of signal to interference plus noise ration (SINR) is developed. The Bit-Error-Rates(BER) performance results are evaluated for different environments like Open Area, Sub-urban, Urban Area and Aeronautical/Marin Area. It is found that the satellite to ground link suffers power penalty due to the cross-polarization which is significant for A/M A and least penalty for OA environment.