Confident of doing well - Merissa Aguilleira

Merissa Aguilleira, the West Indies women's captain and wicketkeeper, is confident her team can give a good account of themselves in the inaugural ICC Women's Cricket Challenge.

"We had a wonderful camp," said Aguilleira. "We know this is just the start of what will be a long journey and we are confident it will be a successful journey.

"The last time we played as a team was in the ICC World Twenty20 and we made some big steps forward - reaching the semi-finals. This time around we will aim to continue the improvement and make more steps forward."

South Africa is hosting the ICC Women's Cricket Challenge, which will see the hosts, West Indies, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Netherlands and Ireland - all ranked between fifth and tenth in the world - competing in a series of one-day and Twenty20 games from October 6 to 16 in Potchefstroom.

"We don't have a lot of time when we reach to get acclimatised so we have to buckle down from early," said Aguilleira. "We are playing against teams that are ranked below us, but they are all very good teams and we can't take anything for granted. We have to make sure we are at our best.

"We had some tough battles with South Africa in recent years and they always come hard at us. Pakistan and Sri Lanka are also very competitive so the upcoming series promises to be exciting for the players and the fans."

Aguilleira who last played for West Indies during the World Twenty20 in May, will be making a comeback after knee surgery.

"I want to say a special thanks to the West Indies Cricket Board for looking out for me and making sure I had the surgery. I also want to thank the doctors and therapists who worked with me when I was away from the game. As a wicketkeeper I had to make sure that everything was fully back in place before I made my comeback and I was really touched by the assistance I got from so many people."

West Indies play their first ODI on October 6 against Netherlands. They play South Africa in their first twenty20 game on October 14.