Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting confirmed that he was approached by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to replace Rahul Dravid as India’s head coach, post the 2024 T20 World Cup. The T20 WC will be Dravid’s last assignment as the senior men’s team’s coach — having extended his tenure post last year’s ODI WC. With the last date to apply for the top post being May 27, BCCI is looking at various big names to take over from Dravid.
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Ponting told ICC, “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.”
He further opined, “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.”
Punter mentioned, “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.”
He added, “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.”
Thus, Ponting isn’t keen to take up the job and is highly unlikely to apply for it as he isn’t willing to give up as DC’s head coach. Moreover, India coach job is highly exhausting, being with the team for 10-11 months, hence, the Aussie isn’t interested to be away from his family for such a long time.
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