Nasser's men think they have got it tough...

Nasser Hussain and his men think they will have a hard time in the World Cup in South Africa next month. Clare Connor, his female counterpart, and her squad believe a World Cup is a doddle compared with what they are about to take on.

"This is certainly more demanding than the last World Cup," said Connor before setting off for a quadrangular tournament against the world's top three teams in New Zealand which starts a week tomorrow. "In the World Cup you would have games against the likes of Holland or Sri Lanka; but this is more like a series of World Cup semi-finals. We will play seven difficult one-day internationals in the space of 13 days." Oh, and then they've got an Ashes series to follow.

But, like all sensible sports people Connor and her charges are travelling in expectation, not of winning necessarily, but of assessing the progress which the England captain – an English teacher in her day job – truly believes has been made. "Our learning over the past 18 months now has to be made to equate to improvement. We have to make all those lessons we have learned in that time count," she said.

Most of the lessons have come from England's first full-time coach, the former Australia women's coach, John Harmer. "He came to us 18 months ago," explained Connor. "He is one of the best coaches in world cricket. He may not be as well-known as Duncan Fletcher, or John Buchanan, but anyone who has been exposed to John Harmer knows that he is good.

"He is pretty much rewriting the ECB coaching manuals. I have some of his coaching CD-Roms that he made years ago with John Buchanan about the bio-mechanics of batting and bowling, I had not seen them until six months ago and I wonder why. He is all about how the body works, how it works most powerfully, most economically, and all those sorts of things. It has been a real experience to work with him.

"His role, as he sees it, is to give us the tools, the skills, the resources, the thoughts, to help us all to think. He is not trying to do our thinking for us, rather he is there to stimulate our thoughts."

Connor reckons England have hauled themselves into the top three in the women's one-day game. "I think we have pushed ourselves up to third in the world in one-day cricket after beating India in the summer. We played NZ in the final at Chester-le-Street and bowled them out for 160, which Australia have not managed in a number of years; NZ normally get 200 plus."

The Kiwis still won but Connor is excited about this tour because: "This squad is the best in the country, everyone is available, everyone is as fit as they have ever been. As a group of players we will be together for as many years as we want to be, depending on injury and form; everyone has to realise they are here now and the place is theirs if they are prepared to graft to keep it."

New Zealand, Australia and India will make sure they graft all right, but there will be plenty more to come afterwards, when the squad cross the Tasman Sea for a two-match Ashes series against the mighty Australians. It can only get tougher.

Tour party: C Connor (Sussex; captain) caps 69, age 26; S Collyer (Somerset) 19, 22; C Edwards (Kent) 40, 23; M Godliman (Sussex) 8, 29; L Harper (Somerset) 16, 19; D Holden (Notts) 23, 22; K Leng (Yorkshire) 47, 29; L Newton (Staffs) 26, 25; L Pearson (Staffs) 42, 30; N Shaw (Notts) 18, 21; L Spragg (Yorks) 5, 20; C Taylor (Berks) 31, 27; C Taylor (Yorks) 97, 37; A Thompson (Lancs) 20, 21.

Itinerary: Jan 20: v Otago; 21: v Otago; 25: v New Zealand A; Quadrangular Tournament (Christchurch) 27: v India; 29: v Australia; 30: v NZ; Feb 2: v Australia; 3: v NZ; 6: v India; 7: 3rd place play-off; 8: Final. Ashes leg: 12-13: v Aus Youth (Brisbane); 15-18: First Test (Brisbane); 22-25: Second Test (Sydney); 26: Return to England.