The day tries to promote the fact that cricket is a game that can be enjoyed by everybody, regardless of their gender, age or ethnicity. Along with Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers, we went to Montrose Primary School in Sandton, where we helped deliver coaching to boys and girls at the school.

It was great to see so many young people enjoying the game, especially girls, and I hope that we can continue encourage more and more females to play the game. There was lots of enthusiasm amongst the girls for playing the game and I was pleasantly surprised at the standard. Give it a few more years and I think I will have to be worried about my place in the team!

It was great to spend time with Hashim and AB and see what positive role models the top international players can be for young people. The reception that greeted them at the school was incredible and we certainly all signed our fair share of autographs – it was nice that the kids seemed keen to get my signature as well as the guys.

	Will she replace me in the team? © ICC

Hopefully we can use events like the next year to build the profile of the game, so our top South African women’s players can inspire more people to play the game.

There isn’t a huge amount of competitive cricket for us to play at the moment, so the main focus is just on working on our fitness.

We all to have to report on a daily basis what fitness work we have done to the squad and then we have fitness tests every fortnight. This is pretty intense and makes sure that nobody loses their focus in the build up to the selection of our squad.

We will then have a training camp in early December, before the final squad is chosen in early January.

I am also working hard to try and be in a position to start bowling for South Africa again, which I think will be an important additional asset if we are going to do well in 2009.

We know that there is a bit of work to do on our bowling and hopefully I will add some extra variety to the attack, although it will be strange starting to bowl on a regular basis again having not done this role for so long.

People ask me whether they think we can make it to the super six stage at the World Cup, but my answer is why can’t we go and win the tournament.

We know that will be extremely tough, but if we don’t aim for the top then we will never achieve number one position in the rankings. There is lots of hard work to do before then, but I think South African cricket has a bright future, particularly if our school visit last week is anything to go by.

	The interest from everybody during the course of the awards evening is a reflection of the increased interest in women’s cricket at home since the Qualifiers earlier in the year © ICC

I had been shortlisted twice before for the award but never managed to win the accolade, so it was a special moment to finally receive my trophy.

I think my award was in recognition of the efforts of leading the side to success at the ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifier and for my first ODI century against Netherlands at that event, which was especially pleasing as my coach had been working with me for a long time to try and help me reach three figures in a big match.

I always really enjoy these award evenings as it is chance to meet other members of the cricket community in South Africa and talk to sponsors about what the team have been up to. It was great that some of the men’s senior team took the time to come and chat to me and the other female nominees, who were Susan Benade and Daleen Terblanche. I had a really good chat with Graeme Smith who wanted to congratulate us on reaching the World Cup and World Twenty20 next year.

It was good to find out how the guys are preparing for their tour of England and how they compare to our preparations.

We don’t leave for the UK for another month, while the men’s team is off next week, but we both face similar challenges in our preparation and it is always useful to learn from the very best.

It’s great to have interest from the likes of Graeme and Paul Harris, who was also really supportive of our efforts, and hopefully we’ll have an opportunity to meet up at some point in the summer in England.

It would be great if our schedules permit the opportunity the chance for us to watch them in action this summer or if they could perhaps come down to some of our games.

I’m not so sure I would want to have a joint training session though and face Dale Steyn in the nets, who was one of the big award winners on Tuesday night! The interest from everybody during the course of the awards evening is a reflection of the increased interest in women’s cricket at home since the Qualifiers earlier in the year.

The media support we are receiving on the back of that event, seeing features on the side in publications like Sports Illustrated this month, is a big motivating factor for me and the whole of the team to do well as we want to do our country proud.

And if this time next year I’m writing about the great competition I faced from my team-mates in trying to win the Player of the Year award, as a result of brilliant performances at ICC events, then I will be a happy captain!