Ponting still has time for Tests

England's Andrew Flintoff may be about to call time on his Test career but retirement is not on Ricky Ponting's agenda.
This week's fifth and final Ashes Test, which starts at the Oval on Thursday will Flintoff, has said, be the last of the injury-prone all-rounder's career.
But Australia captain Ponting, whose side need only a draw in south London to retain the Ashes with the series all square at 1-1, is not thinking about departing the Test scene just yet.
At the age of 34, this could be Ponting's final Test tour of England and a series win would go some way to making up for the disappointment of Australia's 2-1 Ashes reverse on English soil in 2005.
But for Ponting the thrill of leading an Australia side without such star names as the retired quintet of Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer still remains fresh.
"I've never put a time-frame on when I am thinking about finishing my international career," Ponting, Australia's all-time leading run scorer and a veteran of 135 Tests, told reporters at the Oval here on Wednesday.
"It's been one of the big challenges of my career and we've had some good successes along the way," explained Ponting, who led Australia to a series win in South Africa this year.
England famously celebrated their Ashes triumph four years ago with an open-topped bus parade through the streets of London.
But whatever the outcome of the fifth Test, Australia will be boarding a train the day after the scheduled finish for a one-day international against Scotland in Edinburgh.
Ponting has become something of a pantomime villain figure for many England fans at grounds during this series and the booing got so bad that spectators were asked, in the Headingley programme, by England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), chairman Giles Clarke to stop jeering him.
"Last week at Canterbury (in Australia's final warm-up match) was terrific. I got clapped on the ground and I got clapped off, but that might have been because I only made 45 I got clapped off.
"I've enjoyed every moment of this series. It's been great Test match cricket and it's been great to be part of an Ashes series like this. I think it just goes to show that Test cricket is alive and well, and we are all really enjoying these bigger series we are playing in.