There are few better feelings for a coach and management team before a major tour, or tournament, than knowing you couldn’t be any better prepared. That does not mean to say we are going to win this one, but at least you know there isn’t anything more you could have done to improve your chances.

The two-day camp in Durban was highly successful and the warm-up week here went just about perfectly. We adopted a different approach to all the other teams, preferring to play a ‘proper’ XI in the practise games rather than use 12 or 13 players as everyone else did.

I understand the desire to give as many players as possible some game time but, in my opinion, there isn’t enough time in Pro20 to make it worthwhile and players will benefit far more by playing a full part in a game rather than ‘sharing’ a bowling spell with another player or knowing that they wouldn’t be allowed to bat.

It seemed to me that many teams still had some players competing for places against each other in the days leading up to the start of the tournament. I don’t believe that’s fair to anybody in this format. Just because a player bowls two good overs in a warm-up match and his ‘competitor’ bowls two poor overs, do you make a decision based on that?

We worked hard to organise an extra, unscheduled warm-up match against Ireland in order to give our reserves a full outing, too, so we tried to cover all bases.

We felt strongly that we needed to arrive with a settled starting XI and then hit the ground running. Which we did.

England’s humiliation by Holland in the opening game did us a great favour. I didn’t have the slightest doubt about the team’s attitude or approach before the game, but there was a distinct increase in intensity when they all realised that shock upsets really could happen. The ruthless demolition of Scotland on Sunday was partly a reaction to that!

We have a traditional squad dinner before every tour at which the newcomers have to deliver a speech to the rest of the squad about what it means to them to be a part of the Proteas. The criteria for ‘newcomer’ is that they have to be selected for an entire tour so, although Yusuf Abdulla and Roelof van der Merwe had played for the national team already, this was their first, full overseas tour. So they were first up!

For some reason Wayne Parnell slipped under the radar in Australia – I don’t know how – so he had to deliver a speech, too. Then we had our new physio, Brandon Jackson and new fitness trainer, Robbie Walter who impressed everyone by reciting Rudyard Kipling’s famous poem about what it takes to become a man.

Yusuf was a bit nervous but quite moving while Parnie, having been part of the squad for a while, impressed everyone and earned a good round of applause.

We now appear to be just about everybody’s favourites to win – very marginally ahead of India – and we take that as a major compliment. I don’t understand why some teams try to fight off the ‘favourites’ label. It’s just a label, after all.

I said before the tournament that eight teams had at least one or two players with the ability to win a game single-handedly. But to win a tournament you need more than one – no player can win five or six games in a row by himself. Four teams have three or four game-breakers but, perhaps, only India and South Africa have seven or eight.

If Gibbs, Smith and Kallis all fail, then we have De Villiers, Duminy, Morkel and Boucher. Steyn, Botha and Parnell are also potential match winners with the ball. And who’s to say Roelof isn’t, as well?

But to win a T20 tournament, you also need to have the ability to assess conditions and a ‘par’ score. And luck. Nobody wins anything without a bit of luck going their way.

As far as I’m concerned however, we have a happy, relaxed, smiling and extremely well prepared squad. That’s all I can ask for.