Ponting plans to carry on

Australia captain Ricky Ponting plans to continue playing all forms of the game

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Ricky Ponting insisted he plans to remain as Australia captain and has not considered giving up any form of the game after receiving a positive report on his injured wrist today.

Ponting, who returned home early from the tour of the West Indies with the injury and then missed the one-day series against Bangladesh in Darwin in August and September, dismissed any suggestion his career could be cut short after visiting his surgeon Greg Hoy in Melbourne.

It was the first time Ponting had visited Hoy since the operation earlier this year.

The Australia skipper is adamant he will not even have to miss any training sessions let alone any Tests during the upcoming three-Test series against South Africa, which begins in Perth on December 17.

"It was more a check-up I guess and the first opportunity I have had to see Greg since I resumed playing again," said Ponting.

"As everyone knows I have had a bit of discomfort over the last few months but most players on the international scene have a bit of pain they carry through and all the X-ray results (on his wrist) this morning were good.

"There is no need for cortisone (injections) or anything like that at this stage and I can just continue on as I have been.

"I haven't missed a game, I haven't missed a training session and I haven't downgraded my training sessions at all."

Not only does Ponting, who turns 34 later this month, plan to continue playing all three forms of the game for the foreseeable future but he also intends to remain as skipper for a while longer yet.

Ponting, who has been Australia's Test captain since the start of 2004, has already held the job for around the same length of time as predecessors Steve Waugh and Mark Taylor but could yet end up coming close to equalling Allan Border's record of 93 Tests in charge after Border held the job for 10 years.

Ponting is closing on Allan Border's record 93 Tests as Aussie captain - over 10 years

"The previous captains before me probably came into the job a bit later in their careers than me as well," he said.

"I certainly don't feel that I am anywhere near the end of my career or near the end of my career with the captaincy of the side either.

"I have never thought about giving up the captaincy or not wanting to do it any more and I am really enjoying the job and trying to lift the team every day."

Ponting is equally committed to continuing to play all three forms of the game - Tests, one-day internationals and Twenty20 matches - despite suggestions he should retire from one of the shorter forms of the game in order to prolong his Test career.

"I haven't thought about that and I don't really want to because I am enjoying the game too much to even consider any of that," he said.

Ponting said he only felt pain in his wrist occasionally while batting but described the injury as 'very manageable' and says the current break between Test series will do him the world of good before the eagerly awaited showdown with South Africa, the world’s second ranked team.

Ponting insists even if South Africa manage to inflict Australia’s first series defeat on home soil since 1992/93 in the coming series, that did not mean they would automatically become cricket's new number one team.

"It has taken us a long time and a lot of great wins in different conditions around the world to get to that number one spot but it's the same as India (beating us in the) last series," he said.

"That (2-0 series win in India) didn't mean they go from number four or five team in the world to number one in the world because it (the ranking) is something that is accrued over a long period of time."