The Twenty20 World Cup has finally arrived and I’m sure it’s going to be great. Hopefully we can get a decent start and have a good tournament in front of our home fans.

The fact South Africa is hosting the event means a lot to not only the team but the country as a whole. With the 2010 FIFA World Cup around the corner it’s another opportunity to showcase our country and what’s beautiful about it. It’s still relatively early days in the post-Apartheid era and these kinds of events are great for promoting the new South Africa.

In terms of the cricket, we have a lot of young guys in the team and I’m sure they will soon realise how big this is but some of the more experienced players will find a way of staying calm and dealing with the pressure and expectation.

Personally, I’m looking forward to it as it’s another chance to play on the big stage and after missing a bit of cricket with injuries in recent months I can’t wait to play.

We have gained some confidence from the Australia game on Sunday, though we know the West Indies - our opponents in the opening match - have some world-class players and won’t be easy to beat.

I don’t want to get too excited about that win over Australia because they didn’t have Ricky Ponting playing but we should also remember that their bowling attack was pretty much what they will be going in with in the competition with Nathan Bracken, Brett Lee and Stuart Clark so there are definitely reasons for us to be upbeat about our chances. It certainly gave all of us a boost.

I know a few players have said ourselves and Australia are the two favourites, but I don't want to think about that. However, if we do happen to meet in the final we won’t be looking at it as an opportunity to avenge what happened in the World Cup semi-final because Australia are a top side and they deserved everything they achieved in that competition. We were not so much annoyed that we lost the semi-final, more about the manner in which we lost. But that’s history now. On this occasion we are putting the hard work in and hoping it’s going to be our time.

I haven’t played a lot of Twenty20 domestically in South Africa but I did play near enough a full season for Somerset in England in 2005 when we won the competition.

I remember reading a pre-match programme and the guy who wrote the predictions in there was abusing us and said we had no chance of winning the Cup. But we came up with a brand of cricket that worked for us. That’s what teams have to do in this format, find a way of playing that works for you. There is no right way, though by the time the next Twenty20 World Cup comes around in England in 2009 there will probably be other ways of approaching it.

We had two good fast bowlers in Andy Caddick and Richard Johnson, lots of agile youngsters throughout the team and we batted down to about nine or ten. There are some similarities with the South Africa side now I suppose in the youth we have and with exciting young players like Morne Morkel coming through.

In terms of the conditions there has been talk of lower totals at this time of year and it might be the case around Cape Town, where we have had a lot of rain in the winter – I think the damns are 100 percent full. But the weather has been much drier around Johannesburg and also Durban so hopefully the wickets will be good.

Whatever happens I’m sure the games will be exciting and I hope you enjoy the action, and South Africa, if you make it here.