Ricky Ponting reveals he was offered Team India's head coach job

A new era has gotten underway in Indian cricket with Rahul Dravid taking over the head coach’s job from Ravi Shastri. One of the finest batters ever, Dravid has proven his mettle in the mentorship department as well. Hence, expectations are sky-high from him. However, it seems like the former Indian captain wasn’t the first choice to guide the national team.

Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting has revealed that he was offered the role of India’s men’s team head coach during the 2021 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The cricket legend even claimed that the people who approached him were ‘pretty hell-bent’ on getting him on board. However, he didn’t accept the offer due to his workload-related reservations.

Ricky Ponting has done a commendable job as the head coach  of Delhi Capitals

Ponting also said he didn’t want to leave his roles at the IPL franchise and Channel 7. “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.

“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.

For the unversed, Ponting has done a commendable job as the head coach of IPL franchise Delhi Capitals. Under him, the Delhi-based side qualified for the playoffs in three successive seasons since 2019 including a maiden final appearance in 2020. Notably, Ponting has also worked with current BCCI president Sourav Ganguly in DC when the latter was a team mentor during the 2019 season.

Meanwhile, Ricky Ponting also expressed his surprise that Rahul Dravid took the job despite having a young family. “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.”