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Ricky Ponting, the Australian cricketing legend, confirmed that he was approached by the BCCI to take over the head coach role of the Indian cricket team from Rahul Dravid. The 49-year-old, who is a head coach of Delhi Capitals in the IPL, stated that he would love to be coaching a national team, but it's a 10-11 month job, which doesn’t fit into his lifestyle currently.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has set a deadline of May 27 for the prospective candidates to apply for India’s head coach role. The current contract of Rahul Dravid with the BCCI for the head coach role is going to expire after the T20 World Cup 2024, and according to ESPNcricinfo, he is not going to seek another stint.
During the latest episode of the ICC Review, Ricky Ponting alluded to the reports speculating his potential involvement in the Indian head coach scene. He said, “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.”
The two-time ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup winning captain for Australia also spoke about the gruelling nature of the head coach role of the national team in comparison to franchise cricket. He remarked, “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.”
Apart from Ricky Ponting, there have been speculations around Stephen Fleming, Mahela Jayawardene, and Gautam Gambhir in regards to taking over the head coach role of Team India.
