Ponting joins Somerset on one-year deal

Ricky Ponting, Australia's World Cup-winning captain, has joined Somerset on a one-year deal. Ponting, 27, has scored 4856 runs in 69 Tests, and enjoyed a stellar year in 2002-03, scoring seven centuries in 13 Tests, plus a fantastic unbeaten 140 in the World Cup final against India.

Ponting had been one of several big-name batsmen on Somerset's shopping list after a disappointing season, and according to Peter Anderson, the chief executive at Taunton, he will be available to play for the club during the second half of July and the whole of August.

"It is an honour for the county to have such a prominent Australian playing for us," said Somerset's chairman Giles Clarke, the driving force behind the deal. "This announcement is likely to be the first of many to show we mean business."

As far as Somerset's players are concerned, they already know that Clarke means business - at one stage last summer, he threatened put the entire playing staff on the transfer list unless they improved their performances.

Somerset missed out on the signature of Surrey's ex-England batsman Ian Ward, who went to Sussex despite been offered the captaincy as an incentive. They have also been making inquiries about Rahul Dravid's availability next season, although Dravid himself has expressed a desire to return to Scotland in 2004.

Ponting's arrival means that the future of Jamie Cox, Somerset's former captain and regular overseas player, will be under some scrutiny. Cox, a Tasmanian team-mate of Ponting's, had been keen to return to Taunton, and it may be that the two will share their duties.