Before Rahul Dravid, BCCI approached Ricky Ponting for team India’s head coach role.
Former Australian cricketer Ricky Ponting has revealed that the Indian cricket board was initially looking to have him on board for the coaching role in the senior Indian team, however, he turned down the proposal. It has been come to notice that the former Indian skipper, Rahul Dravid, wasn’t the first choice for high profile job.
Rahul Dravid’s tenure as Indian head coach has gotten underway last night when India faced New Zealand in Jaipur. The new Indian T20I skipper Rohit Sharma registered a win against kiwis by five wickets in the opening match.
Ponting in a conversation with Grade Cricketers Podcast has revealed that the Indian officials during the Indian Premier League (IPL) reached out to him regarding the roles of team India.
The Aussie former World cup winning captain denied the offer from the BCCI as he has to give up on his already signed commitments including Delhi Capitals (DC) coaching roles.
“But [in this job] I am living in India for 300 days a year. Yeah, look I had a couple of conversations with some people during the IPL about it,” Ponting said while speaking on The Grade Cricketer podcast.
He further added that the people who approached him were pretty determined to make the deal work.
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“You know the people I spoke to were pretty hell-bent on trying to find a way to make it work because the first thing I said was ‘I just can’t give up that time, it will mean I can’t coach in the IPL, I’ll have to give up [Channel] 7 stuff in the summer, it just can’t work’,” he added.
Ricky Ponting has been associated with Delhi based IPL franchise for a couple of years now. Under his watchful eyes, DC has qualified for the playoffs three consecutive times and even made its maiden final appearance during 2020 IPL.
Ricky Ponting was surprised after Dravid took up reins of the Indian side:
The Aussie cricking legend was left astonished after he heard of Rahul Dravid taking over as India’s head coach.
“I’m surprised that Dravid has taken it up as well. There was a lot of chat about how happy he was in his Under-19 role he had. I’m not sure about his family life but I’m sure he has got young kids. So I’m surprised that he took it,” he added.
Several experts believe that Rahul Dravid would have been the only choice for the BCCI had he not shown his reluctance to take over as India’s head coach in the past. Dravid loved his work at NCA and the results are no secret.
The reports suggest that the BCCI has previously approached Dravid several times for similar agenda, however, the former cricketer turned down the offer citing he can’t stay away from his family for long.