Her twin sister, Kate.

The Blackwells have been part of the Australian women's team for the past four years, but last month the selectors included Alex but not Kate in the squad which will be trying to win the World Cup on home soil.

Alex who will also be the team's vice-captain for the World Cup said yesterday the last month had been tough.

''Obviously I'm very disappointed for Kate and she's very disappointed and probably just a little bit unlucky not to be here,'' she said.

''But she's just working very hard and she's still very positive about the Australian team.''

The Australian team is in Canberra for a three-day camp before the World Cup starts next week.

The Australian team will be under plenty of pressure when it steps out on the field Saturday week against New Zealand.

In the recent Rose Bowl series, Australia was 2-0 down in the series in New Zealand before staging a comeback and escaped with a tied result.

In that comeback it posted 8-258 and then 4-307 which New Zealand failed to chase down, before the tiebreaker was washed out.

It proved New Zealand is one of the top teams in women's cricket and is set to be a sizeable obstacle in Australia's defence of the World Cup.

Blackwell said that after the last six months of intensive preparation, the team just can't wait to start.

The team received their official match shirts from ACT Sports Minister Kate Ellis yesterday.

''It's been a long campaign and we've had lots of series along the way, but always in the back of your mind is the World Cup and wanting to be there, especially on home soil, we are all very proud to be part of the team,'' Blackwell said. ''Now there has been so much talk about it, who is the favourites etc, now we just really want to get out there and play and make sure we play some really attacking cricket that hopefully the crowds will want to see as well.''

Australia plays two warm-up games next week in Sydney before its opening game of the World Cup.

Australia plays New Zealand at North Sydney Oval on March 8.

Manuka Oval will also host two games on the opening weekend, England v Sri Lanka on March 7 and Sri Lanka v Pakistan on March 8.