Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting who rejected the Indian head coach role revealed the reason behind his decision not to become the successor of Rahul Dravid.
BCCI who is in the hunt for the new head coach role, is rumoured to have approached Ponting to take over from Rahul Dravid as next coach for Indian men’s team. Ponting confirmed the news and confirmed that he rejected the offer as it didn’t fit into his “lifestyle right now”.
As Rahul Dravid’s tenure as head coach is set to come to an end after the T20 World Cup 2024, BCCI approached many leading coaches including Justin Langer, Stephen Fleming and Gautam Gambhir to take over the role.
With May 27 as the deadline for the application, BCCI has not yet confirmed any names of the participants.
“I’ve seen a lot of reports about it. Normally these things pop up on social media before you even know about them, but there were a few little one-on-one conversations during the IPL, just to get a level of interest from me as to whether I would do it,” Ponting told ICC.
“I’d love to be a senior coach of a national team, but with the other things that I have in my life and wanting to have a bit of time at home…everyone knows if you take a job working with the Indian team you can’t be involved in an IPL team, so it would take that out of it as well.
“Also, a national head coach is a 10 or 11-month-of-the-year job, and as much as I’d like to do it, it just doesn’t fit into my lifestyle right now and the things that I really enjoy doing.
“I’ve seen a few other names thrown about as well. Justin Langer’s name got thrown in yesterday, Stephen Fleming’s name has been thrown about a little bit. Gautam Gambhir’s name has been thrown around a little bit the last couple of days as well. But I think it’d be unlikely for me just on the reasons that I’ve given there,” he said.
Ponting, who has had his family with him during his coaching stint with DC, added that he did tell his son Fletcher about the job offer.
“My family and my kids have spent the last five weeks over at the IPL with me and they come over every year and I had a whisper to my son about it, and I said, ‘Dad’s been offered the Indian coaching job’ and he said, ‘Just take it dad, we would love to move over there for the next couple of years'” revealed Ponting.
“That’s how much they love being over there and the culture of cricket in India, but right now it probably doesn’t exactly fit into my lifestyle.”
Meanwhile, Andy Flower, the head coach of RCB, confirmed that he hasn’t applied for the India head coach’s role.
“I haven’t applied. I won’t be applying. I’m happy with my involvement in the franchise game at the moment. I’m really enjoying it. It’s fascinating stuff and I’m working with some amazing organizations so I’m really happy with that at the moment.”
As per the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 schedule, India will play their first match of the tournament against Ireland on June 5 in Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, New York.
