Birthday girl Greenway aims for big presence

As a birthday present, Lydia Greenway couldn't ask for much more. On Wednesday, when she turns 23, she will take to the field on Wednesday for England's first one-dayer against South Africa in front of her home crowd at Canterbury. But the talented batsman isn't fussed about the pressure of playing in front of a loyal band of spectators: "A few might be coming down. Hopefully the weather will be all right," she smiles. "It's a nice ground. We used to go down there and watch the men play. You can take your car there and sit on the hill and bring a picnic."

Greenway is undoubtedly one of England's best fielders but she has yet to deliver the goods at international level with the bat. She averaged 16.55 before being dropped in 2005 and has been gradually improving with a more respectable average of 24.53 in the 20 innings since. She has only one fifty in 44 knocks but says, amiably and confidently: "I think I know within myself that I've got more to give and I hope that I can. I've realised more about the mental side of it. You can have all the shots but it's how you apply yourself and that's what I'm working on. I want to take more responsibility - looking at people like Lottie [Charlotte Edwards] and Tails [Claire Taylor], that's what they do every game."

She has always been compared to Edwards, her captain at Kent and now England, which she admits used to be tough: "When I was younger I probably put pressure on myself from what other people said. But as I've continued to play I've learnt - especially after being dropped - that you always have someone to look up to and Lottie is someone I look up to. She's an amazing player but it's important to focus on your capabilities. I've learnt my game a bit more."

Her confidence is always building and time in Australia - in arguably the strongest domestic league in the world - has helped. She was one of five England players to spend last winter in Sydney, and will be returning to her club Wallsend before next year's World Cup in New South Wales in March. Though England don't have any international cricket from October, a quintet will be getting plenty of practice and time to acclimatise.

Greenway took up a Chance to Shine contract when she got back, on a part-time basis to allow her to go to Australia. In the meantime she is doing 25 hours a week including travel, which means coaching in schools in Kent for three days and Berkshire for one, with Wednesday off for training. "It's been really good. If you've got another job, some have struggled in the past to get time off. Everyone's keen for us to get the most out of it work-wise and getting the cricket in," he said. "It's trial and error and making sure we're not doing too much driving. The coaching has been good as well. I struggled in primary schools when I was younger and not that experienced. I've got more confidence now and I'm really enjoying it."

It's all a confidence game with Greenway, whose self-belief grows by the year. She is certainly excited about being a pioneer where the contracts are concerned. "All the girls are keen to make an impact so we can hopefully continue it in the future. We're showing that girls do play women's cricket and there is an England women's team.

"We go in to schools with our kit on - if you were in normal clothes they wouldn't think twice. Some of them are like 'So you play for England? What, for the women's team?' Some of them go, 'What, you play with the men?' It's astounding.

"It just raises awareness. I've seen girls in the past can get overawed by the boys but secretly they might want to join in. It influences them and they get involved. The other week, a woman teacher joined in as well. All the children loved it. Another school, the kids were coming out with cricket bats instead of a football."

Her younger brother Adam is a semi-professional footballer with Croydon Athletic but Greenway chose cricket over football (she played for QPR) because the travelling for both sports was getting too much. Her dad introduced her to cricket and coincidentally played at the same club, Hayes, as Lynsey Askew and the daughters ended up joining the boys' junior team. "I didn't think there was an England women's team till I was sixteen," she shrugs. Now she plays club hockey in the winter, too, which is great for fitness.

In the meantime, the challenge ahead is with the South Africa series, when she is likely to bring up 50 ODIs (she is currently on 48). The sides were supposed to meet for a Test, but with two world tournaments looming, that got scrapped in favour of five ODIs and three Twenty20s. Greenway says it's a shame the Test was cancelled. "But, for the women's game especially, it [Test cricket] is not boring but people do prefer to see more action. From that point of view and getting more people to watch it's good that we're heading towards Twenty20 rather than Tests. But you could say that the proper cricket fans also like to see Tests so it's swings and roundabouts I suppose."

The sides last played each other three years ago and South Africa can expect more aggression than ever. Greenway says England found it hard to be aggressive in matches when they get on so well with the opposition afterwards. But an increasingly professional set-up has brought a more professional mindset. "We're making that change now and recognising that you can still play hard on the pitch and still have that same relationship off the pitch. What goes on the pitch stays on the pitch. Not sledging or anything, just getting the ball in to the keeper and not worrying about the batter being in the way and just being a bit tougher."

To this extent Edwards have been building on the tough foundations laid down by Clare Connor, now the ECB's head of women's cricket. "Lottie always has such high standards for herself that she expects a lot from us a team and she always wants more," says Greenway. "We wouldn't be allowed to just think we'd done a job. That's what we did in the winter.

"We had a really good first leg on the tour, it would have been easy for us to have gone to New Zealand and rested on our laurels - 'We've just beaten Australia, we don't need to do much else' - but we didn't, we went on to beat New Zealand and I think that's just shown that we've moved on."

Greenway is set to square up with her former county colleague, South Africa's captain Cri-Zelda Brits. "She gives a hundred per cent to everything, but we'll be the same. We just need to concentrate on what we're doing and not so much what they're doing. It will be good to see her - and maybe have a bit of banter."