Sydney, Dec. 5: Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting says his side deserves the number one ranking in Test cricket even if South Africa defeats them this month.

"It has taken us a long time and a lot of great wins in different conditions around the world to get us to that No. 1 spot," Fox Sports quoted Ponting, as saying on Thursday.

Sydney, Dec. 5 : Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting has said that he should have avoided the team’s tour to India in October and November this year and given himself some more time to recover from his wrist surgery.

"Probably right at the time, with the break that I had after the West Indies and leading into the Indian series, and the Indian series being as big as it was, I was probably not forced, but I wanted to come back and resume playing as soon as I possibly could," Ponting said.

"It would have been nice to have another couple of months off, but I wasn''t afforded that luxury,” Fox Sports quoted him, as saying.

Melbourne, Dec. 4 : Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting has said that he has no plans to reduce his ODI appearances to prolong his Test career.

He said he wanted to play as much international cricket as he could, and enjoyed the challenge of leading Australia through their transitional phase following the exodus of retirees.

Melbourne, Dec. 4 : Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting has assured his fans that his well-publicised wrist injury is little more than a niggle and it will, hopefully, be healed by the end of the summer.

Ponting visited surgeon Greg Hoy in Melbourne today for a scan on his right wrist - which has previously been operated on - and was told there no need for cortisone injections or other treatment for the injury.

"It was not a necessity for me to go and see the surgeon, it was more of a check-up," Ponting said.

"As everyone knows, I''ve had a bit of discomfort over the past few months but most players on the international scene have a bit of pain they''ve got to carry through every season," he added.

Sydney, Dec. 4 : Everyone knows that Australian captain Ricky Ponting has been Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh’s bunny in almost all the series that have been contested between the two countries since 2001, and if Ponting does go through with his `horses for course” strategy, he would probably have to bar himself from facing the Indians anywhere on the cricket field.

At least, that is what former Australian fast bowler Damien Fleming thinks. Fleming told the Sydney Morning Herald that in cases where a horses for courses policy has been followed in the past, it has always been the bowlers, rather than the batters, who have been made the whipping boys.

Melbourne, Dec. 3 : Australian cricket team physiotherapist Alex Kountouris has dismissed speculation that captain Ricky Ponting''s career could be cut short by a wrist injury.

Ponting was visiting his surgeon Greg Hoy in Melbourne on Thursday for assessment of his right wrist, after he had a screw inserted in July to repair tissue and tendon damage.

The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Kountouris as saying that the appointment had been planned six weeks ago. He said the pain Ponting was experiencing was standard after any type of surgery and was not severe enough to have caused him to miss a training session let alone consider being rested from any matches.