Touching base in England

It has been a hectic few days for the members of the South African team. We had to leave for England immediately after the inaugural Twenty20 Super Fours domestic competition over the weekend. The team is geared up for the first match of the tour, an ODI against Ireland in Crowthorne on Thursday, which will be followed by a Twenty20 international the next day.

The Super Fours was a great experience and showed that there is some strength and depth for women’s cricket in South Africa. It is something that I am certain Cricket South Africa will look to repeat in the future, both for Twenty20 and 50-over cricket.

Back to the series, there hasn’t been much time to acclimatise to local conditions. The matches against Ireland, whom we had defeated to qualify for the World Cup, will offer invaluable practice time ahead of some of the tougher challenges that lie ahead for us on the tour. We are also aware that Ireland’s side will have some different faces to the team that played us in Stellenbosch, but to be honest our main focus is just on our game.

We know the things that we need to work on in the build-up to the World Cup and this tour will show us what we need to compete against the very best in the world.

It is not very often we have the chance to go away as a squad for a month, so I am determined that we can use this time to bond as a side and really work on our game. I felt the week we spent together as a team in Stellenbosch earlier in the year really helped us, so hopefully we can really take something from being together for a long period of time.

While I would love to see some of the sites that England has to offer and watch our men’s team in the Test series, our main focus will very much be on making sure that we use our time as effectively as possible. We also want to make sure the whole squad gets exposure to international cricket during the trip.

I can’t wait for the challenge and hopefully we can look to be as successful as Graeme Smith’s side on their tour to England.