The Indian Cricket Board seems to be running out of options for Team India’s head coach role, with top overseas contenders like Ricky Ponting, Stephen Fleming and Justin Langer declining the chance to replace Rahul Dravid as head coach. While Ponting and Langer have issued statements on why they refused this offer in the first place, the sources close to the information revealed Fleming turned down the chance due to the duration of this contract, which is three and a half years.
Following the conclusion of the upcoming 2024 T20 World Cup in the Caribbean and the USA starting June 2, Dravid’s tenure will end, with the new head coach taking over the job from July 1 with immediate effect. Earlier, the BCCI took to social media to invite applicants for Team India’s head coach role, with several reports suggesting that BCCI approached these stalwarts to apply for the job, the deadline of which is May 27 – one day after the IPL 2024 final.
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Speaking on the ICC Review, former Australia captain Ponting said he would have loved to coach a national team, but given his lifestyle, he fears not being able to donate nine to ten months in a year for that.
“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 ten- 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,” Ponting said on ICC Review.
Meanwhile, Langer revealed his reason behind letting go of Team India’s head coach role job, saying after having a detailed chat with Lucknow Super Giant (LSG) captain and India’s batting mainstay KL Rahul, he decided to turn it down.
“You never say never. And the pressure of doing it in India… I was talking to KL Rahul [the captain at Lucknow Super Giants, where Langer is the head coach], and he said, ‘You know, if you think there’s pressure and politics in an IPL team, multiply that by a thousand, [that’s] coaching India. That was a good bit of advice, I guess.
“It would be an awesome job, but not for me at the moment,” Langer said.
India’s coaching role is not Fleming’s cup of tea
Chennai Super Kings’ CEO Viswanathan revealed on CSK’s YouTube channel that Fleming has likely turned down the offer mainly because of its tenure.
“I know that it’s not going to be his cup of tea because he doesn’t like to be involved [in coaching] for nine-ten months in a year. That’s my feeling. I have not discussed anything more with him,” Viswanathan said.
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