Australian captain Ricky Ponting admits his desire to take part in the 2013 Ashes series in England heavily influenced his decision to retire from international Twenty20 cricket.
Ponting made the shock announcement to step down for the game's shortest version at Sydney airport on Monday afternoon, moments before boarding a flight to England to rejoin the one-day squad for the final four matches of the current series.
The prolific skipper insists he thought 'long and hard' about the decision during his recent 12-day break with his family, and gave the strongest indication yet that he plans to play on for another four years.
"I love every opportunity that I've had to play for Australia and I want to play for Australia and play well for Australia for as long as I can," Ponting said.
"Having returned from England with the taste in the mouth that I had, I was very keen to give it every possible crack to get back there again, and this decision now is certainly a big part of giving myself the best chance to achieve that."
"So as long as I'm playing well and as long as I'm enjoying the game, I've never put a limit on how far I can play or how many games I can play or how long I can play for."
The 34-year-old will honour the final year of his contract with Indian Premier League side Kolkata Night Riders and would not rule out playing for Tasmania in future editions of the KFC Twenty20 Big Bash.
But the skipper is convinced the extra time at home will give him the best chance of playing on at the highest level deep into his thirties.
"I definitely feel that I still have a lot to offer the Twenty20 game, but when you factor in an extra four weeks of international cricket it has an affect down the track on other forms of the game as well," he explained.
"You look at even the way I started the last Ashes series, going in nice and fresh and making a hundred in the first game and sort of almost going downhill through the series."
"I want to make sure that that doesn't happen for the remainder of my career so I want to give it the best possible chance I can to be as fresh as I can for every one-day game and Test match I play for however long I play for."
While totally convinced he has pulled the right rein, Ponting admits the man most likely to take over as Twenty20 captain is not so certain.
"He (Michael Clarke) wasn't sure if I was making the right decision or not and the coach (Tim Nielsen) was probably a little bit the same," Ponting revealed.
"They both were a little bit apprehensive about what I had to say but as I explained to them it's for all the right reasons, it's about me being the best player and best leader of the Australian cricket team for as long as I possibly can be."
Ponting averaged 28.64 with the bat at a strike rate of 132.78 in the 17 international Twenty20 matches he played.
Australia does not play a Twenty20 international level until February 5 next year.