George Bailey keen to continue ‘captaining’ Australian team

Australian T20 captain George Bailey insists that the team`s semi-final finish was just the start of his career.

Sydney: Even as Australia’s title bid in the World Twenty20 campaign ended after being beaten by the West Indies side, vanquished captain George Bailey insisted that the team`s semi-final finish was just the start of his career as a ‘national leader’.

Bailey said he wants to continue in the captaincy job as he seeks to advance his career in the longer formats, although Australia wouldn’t play another Twenty20 international until January. ``I`m keen to play as much cricket for Australia as I can. I just said to the guys then I`ve really enjoyed the five weeks we`ve had together,`` a leading Australian daily quoted Bailey, as saying. “It`s an eternity for a T20 team and it`s the first time that I`ve felt it`s become a team. In the last few months we`ve started to treat our T20 team like our one-day team and our Test team in the way we pick it. We`re trying to look for that consistency with guys in their spots and starting to respect the way T20 is played,” he added. Bailey also admitted that though the Australian side was proud of whatever it had achieved till now, it pinches of being out of the tournament. ``It stings that we haven`t won this tournament. Australian cricket`s very proud of what it`s achieved and we haven`t won a World Twenty20 tournament so that hurts,” he said. “All you can do in Twenty20 is give yourself a chance to get to the knockout stages and then play your best cricket. We ticked the first bit. We just got outplayed tonight,” he added. ANI