Retirement is ruled out by Ricky Ponting

The 36-year-old told a news conference yesterday, on the eve of Australia's quarter-final against co-hosts India, that he wants to continue playing both Test and one-day international cricket.

"I don't see the finish line, I want to keep playing both forms of the game as long as I think I can contribute," said Ponting, his country's all-time leading run-scorer in ODIs.

"Nothing's changed for me in the past 12 months. I've said all along, every time I've been asked about retirement, that I'm enjoying my cricket as much as ever. I've never, ever thought about retirement.

"I've been trying to prepare myself as best I can as a player and lead the side as well as possible. For some reason, these retirement things keep popping up all the time."

Ponting admitted he had looked into the possibility of playing county cricket in England but claimed that would not be happening this year. He said: "I actually looked at trying to play some county cricket before the Sri Lanka tour (in August) this year for the fact that I will be coming off three months of no cricket. As it worked out, our programmes just didn't line up, I certainly won't be going there to play this year."