Ricky Ponting has conceded he does not have much time left in the game, saying he will quit as soon as he considers himself incapable of improvement, and will not wait for a "tap on the shoulder. However Ponting believes he is not yet ready to retire because he has not felt the same loss of drive common to the greats he once shared a dressing room with.In Ponting's time as captain, Justin Langer, Shane Warne and Adam Gilchrist all related the same drain of enthusiasm for the work required to keep playing international cricket. Ponting said he was yet to feel similarly empty, and was flushed with further enthusiasm by his 62 in Australia's memorable win over South Africa."If I keep doing all the work that I'm doing and then not getting the results then maybe it's time. But at the moment I don't feel that time is here just yet," Ponting said in Sydney. "I feel there's enough there still to keep working hard. I was captain when Langer, Warne and Gilchrist and all those guys stood down so I know the things that were going through their mind having spoken to them."A lot of them, what they said about it they just didn't have the drive and the desire to work as hard as they needed to work to get their games back on track again. With me, there's no doubting that at all. You can ask all the other players, all the other coaches and the things that I've been doing and putting myself through over the last few months it' s been about trying to get every little last bit out of myself and giving myself the best chance to perform."I'll continue to do that but there's only a certain amount of time I can keep that going for as well. If it is that I've reached a point where I can't get better then it might be time.Ponting is clearly preparing himself for the possibility this may be his last summer in Australian colours, even though the possibility is hurtful to a man who has known the inside of the dressing room for 16 years. His recent struggles in South Africa, brightened partially by the final innings, gave him plenty of time to consider his own technical fallibility."When you have three dismissals that I've had in that Test series I had to have a look at where things were going wrong," Ponting said. "I was seeing the ball clear enough, I felt I was moving early enough but I was moving into the wrong positions. Head position was one thing I had to look at and I was locking myself off with my front foot, straight ball was hitting me on the pads.I did a lot of work leading up to the second Test match and got out the same way in the first innings of the second Test. I noticed some differences with my own batting in the second innings of the second Test. It's probably been highlighted as well. I saw some footage on the big screen when I was batting showing things were a little bit different in that innings."I know if I get some time in the middle then all those things will start coming back. It's when you're deprived of time in the middle you wonder how long it's going to take for that stuff to come back again. I couldn't bat more in the nets than I have over the last few months and it's about now getting myself in the same frame of mind as I was for this last Test match then hopefully start the summer really well in Australia."Though he has been the subject of unstinting criticism and analysis over the past year, first for his captaincy and latterly his batting, Ponting said he understood the reasons why, and did not need to hear his captain Michael Clarke say he needed to contribute more often."I don't have to ask questions to know I have to make runs," Ponting said. "We're in a professional game and if you're not making runs you'll arrive home and you'll answer questions that I've been answering the last few weeks, that's just part and parcel of what we do."I totally understand why I'm being asked the questions I'm being asked, but by the same token I believe I'm good enough, one, to be in the team and I'm good enough to win games for Australia. Hopefully in the next little bit I can start doing that again.
