Ricky Ponting now wants Australia to lay their hands on the T20 world title. Australia are the leading side in ODI's and Tests.

The big bucks for the taking from Texan billionaire Allen Stanford and the Indian Premier League, not withstanding, Ponting waants his team to stake claim as the best T20 team in the world, the pride of place that currently belongs to India, after they won the inaugral T20 World Championsip in South Africa last year.

Ponting is driven by the dream of a world title, which means the newest form of the game is serious cricket for him and not just fun.

Australia and the West Indies clash in the first Twenty20 international to be played on Caribbean soil at Kensington Oval on Friday.

While the Windies would surely be thinking of playing for Stanford's All Stars in a $US20 million showdown with England in November, Ponting will have his mind on other things, the Twenty20 world title that would make Australia champions in all three forms of the game.

"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 knocked out of the semi finals by India.

"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."

Ponting,however, had a tongue in cheek comment on his former deputy Adam Gilchrist's opinion that T20 should become the most dominant form of the game.

"Let's just remember Gilly's only income is coming out of the IPL these days," Ponting said.

"I've said right from the start that I think it's important that there is a (scheduling) window carved out for the IPL, just because I can see it being dangerous to international cricket, and right at the moment I'm concerned that it could start eating into either 50-over or Test cricket, and that's not what I want to see."