Winning the Asia Cup for the fourth time earlier this year was very satisfying © Cricinfo Ltd

I feel the series will be evenly contested because while India have just had a miserable tour of England, Australia are yet to recover from the Ashes defeat. In fact that may work to our advantage and the first few games will be vital.

I thought I would share some of my memories as Indian captain with you. I had got a few opportunities to lead the side before I took over at the World Cup and it was a great confidence-booster that nearly everybody said I had the qualities required in a captain. But my memories of captaining during the World Cup are a blur. I think I just went through the motions without really thinking about it. It was an emotional and action-packed experience and I never got the time to introspect.

After the World Cup I could take time to enjoy my role in the team. Our first series was against England at home which we won 4-1. Then came the Asia Cup, which we won for the second successive time but our tours of Australia and New Zealand were rather forgettable. All our Asia Cup campaigns have been successful and we need to see how we can translate the confidence we got from there to series in Australia, where we will be playing the World Cup in four months.

The most memorable moment of my captaincy was our Test series win in England. Anjum Chopra scored 98 and Jhulan Goswami took ten wickets in the match. In a five-day game the fortunes of a side fluctuate and that we held the advantage to make England follow on was truly special. The biggest regret would have to be our loss in the World Cup final. It hurts a lot once you have got so close to the title.
But overall captaincy was an eventful roller-coaster ride. It feels great when people recognise you as the leader of the Indian team but on the flipside you also get blamed for losses even when you’re helpless to avoid them. I tried to learn from both experiences and move on. In fact I would say that success all the time would have been monotonous.

Setbacks make you think harder about what you’re doing
What was most satisfactory was when we worked out a particular strategy for a team or a player and it clicked on the field. But more than anything I was proud to earn the respect of my players. I can honestly say that though I had a lot of friends in the side I never pushed anyone’s case for selection on the basis of my relationship with the player. I have tried to be true to my post and the fact that I never had to work to get the players to rally around me proves we had a great relationship.

Now its time to concentrate on my batting and hope we reverse our form from the England tour.

	Jhulan Goswami uses her height to extract bounce off the wickets and bowls an excellent line and length © TigerCricket.com

Jhulan Goswami also deserves to be the number one bowler in women’s cricket. She is a very difficult bowler to face.

I have played against at her in the World Cup and the Afro-Asia Cup and I think it is her pace that is one of her biggest assets. She also uses her height to extract bounce off the wickets and bowls an excellent line and length.

There aren’t many bowlers in the women’s international game that have all those assets and who apply them on a consistent basis.

I am also delighted there are some South Africans in the top 20 of the batting and bowling rankings.

It is an honour to be named in the top 20 of the batting rankings, while I am delighted the progress of Alicia Smith and Ashlyn Kilowan has also been recognised in the bowling rankings.

Since being dropped from the national team last year, Alicia has worked extremely hard not only to regain her place but really establish herself as one of the key players for South Africa

She is a very determined character and responds well to extra responsibility, which is why we used her to open the batting against England in some of matches on tour. I would expect her to emerge as one of the game’s leading al-rounders in the future.

Ashlyn’s story is an extraordinary one, given that she didn’t even start playing the game until after she left school, but she is a great example to provide to anybody on how hard work and dedication can help you achieve results. It is a terrific achievement to be in the top twenty of the world and I know everybody in our dressing room will be delighted for.

I am also really hopeful that we will see the likes of Charlize van der Westhuizen, Sunette Loubser and Trisha Chetty all be challenging for a place in the top 20 soon.

Our thoughts are still very much focused on the build up to the World Cup. Our provincial competition began in South Africa last weekend and we continually to work as hard as we can on our games to be ready for Australia in 2009.

The incentive of an improved player ranking will certainly be an added motivation for us and all the other teams to spend those extra hours in the gym or in the nets.

Presently, the tour to Pakistan is on hold. This tour plays an integral part in our overseas and international exposure for groundwork to partake in World Cup 2009 in Australia. There is a sense of uneasiness with reference to security for players and management and we should take this into consideration. It is a sad state for cricket on the whole and to our preparation for World Cup 2009. Personally, I do not have any fear of touring Pakistan, but I am a bit apprehensive about the safety of the West Indies team.

Only a few players have indicated fear and express concern touring Pakistan. As for me, my statement of not having the fear to travel to Pakistan has cause heated debate in St Lucia. A comment of me being "crazy" to travel was made. The Caribbean people are generally expressing mixed feelings about the tour to Pakistan in light of the bombing of the Marriott hotel.

The team needs the international exposure and the experience of playing teams we expect to meet in the upcoming World Cup. There we can measure the team’s level of preparedness and work on our strengths and weaknesses. We are now in a position of playing "catch up" to the other nations who have already qualified for World Cup 2009. The team understands the situation and looks forward to playing Sri Lanka. The West Indies board and the team are monitoring the situation and a final decision will be made soon.