An equivalent single layer trigonometric shear deformation theory taking into account transverse shear deformation effect as well as transverse normal strain effect is presented for static flexure of cross-ply laminated composite and sandwich plates. The inplane displacement field uses sinusoidal function in terms of thickness coordinate to include the transverse shear deformation effect. The cosine function in thickness coordinate is used in transverse displacement to include the effect of transverse normal strain. The kinematics of the present theory is much richer than those of the other higher order shear deformation theories, because if the trigonometric term (involving thickness coordinate z) is expanded in power series, the kinematics of higher order theories (which are usually obtained by power series in thickness coordinate z) are implicitly taken into account to good deal of extent. Governing equations and boundary conditions of the theory are obtained using the principle of virtual work. The closed-form solutions of simply supported cross-ply laminated composite and sandwich plates have been obtained. The results of present theory are compared with those of the classical plate theory (CPT), first order shear deformation theory (FSDT), higher order shear deformation theory (HSDT) of Reddy and exact three dimensional elasticity theory wherever applicable. The results predicted by present theory are in good agreement with those of higher order shear deformation theory and the elasticity theory.