Ponting eyeing T20 title to seal overall world champion status

Aussie cricket captain Ricky Ponting is eyeing to win the next Twenty20 World Cup to be played in England next year, in a bid to make his team the worlds number one team in all three versions of the game.

Sydney, June 19 : Aussie cricket captain Ricky Ponting is eyeing to win the next Twenty20 World Cup to be played in England next year, in a bid to make his team the world's number one team in all three versions of the game.

T20 champions India had defeated Australia in the semi-final of last year's inaugural T-20 World Cup held in South Africa.

In the first Twenty20 international to be played on Caribbean soil, Australia will play against the West Indies at Kensington Oval on Friday.

"With this game, we've probably only got about five games before we play the next world championship in England in 2009," said Ponting, whose side was eliminated by eventual champions India at the inaugural World Twenty20 last year.

"Obviously, bowing out in the semi-finals last time, we were a bit disappointed with that, so it's up to all of us to improve our 20-over cricket ... and making sure we become the No.1 team in the world at that version of the game as well. I said right at the start when we first started playing Twenty20 cricket that I thought it was a really good promotional tool for the other forms of the game, and I think it's gone a bit further than that now. With the world championship around, that's the big thing that has changed it for me," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Ponting as saying.

ANI