The National Women's Squads have been announced and next month both the New Zealand and New Zealand A players will be in Christchurch at the familiar venue of the High Performance Centre in Lincoln to take part in the first winter training camp

This first camp, as I understand it will be one of assessment. With the second camp scheduled two months later in June now is the ideal time to not only assess players fitness levels but set down some training guidelines for the next two months.

Baseline fitness assessments usually involve a combination of the following; The Beep test (an old favourite of mine) and speed/agility testing which usually incorporates a running between the wickets and fielding component. Results are recorded by the fitness trainer Warren Frost and are used as a guide to the team management and selectors throughout the year.

In addition to testing this camp will no doubt focus on the achievements at the CricInfo Women's World Cup with a view to identifying areas of the game that need to be developed further.

With a six-month break from cricket anticipated I imagine many of the players will engage in winter sports.

Winter sports provide athletes with the opportunity to take a mental and physical break from the rigours of cricket whilst maintaining a good level of fitness.

Several members of the Clear White Ferns Squad have excelled in other sporting codes for example Rebecca Rolls (NZ Women's Soccer team), Erin McDonald, Haidee Tiffen and Paula Flannery (provincial hockey representatives). Involvement in these types of sports can bring great benefits to the game of cricket as they have transferable fitness requirements eg aerobic, anaerobic fitness, agility, speed, reaction time and so forth.

So whilst the girls are in training mode for cricket – I am doing some training of a different sort – training of the vocal chords. Yes - I have recently discovered that you cannot just turn up at a gig and sing your little heart out for hours on end without doing some sort of training/preparation. It's a bit like cricket really – If I can make that comparison. If you want to perform you need to understand the requirements of your role and train accordingly before stepping out on the stage.

So lets just say that I have a bit of work to do. Who knows this may have hidden benefits for cricket – just think how strong my appeals will be in future!

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