Ricky Ponting confirms BCCI offered him India head coach job but he said no: ‘Gambhir, Langer, Fleming…’

Legendary Australian cricketer and the current head coach of the Delhi Capitals, Ricky Ponting, confirmed that the BCCI approached him to replace Rahul Dravid as the coach of Team India after the T20 World Cup in the Americas this year. Still, it is highly unlikely that he would apply.

“I’ve seen a lot of reports about it,” Ponting told the ICC. “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.”

If Ponting takes charge as India’s head coach, he would have to cut his ties with DC, which he is not ready to do. The constant travel to different parts of the world that the job required the Indian coach to do also made the former Australia skipper apprehensive.

“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,” he said.

Gambhir, Langer and Fleming in the race to become India head coach

The BCCI started approaching big names in the IPL after Dravid made it clear that he would not reapply after his extended contract ends with the T20 World Cup. The former India captain and his entire support staff were given an extension till the T20 World Cup by the BCCI after their original contracts expired in November last year.

Ponting was one of the prominent names to have interested the BCCI because of his wealth of experience as a player and coach. The other names that were approached by the BCCI were Justin Langer (Lucknow Super Giants head coach), Stephen Fleming (Chennai Super King head coach), Gautam Gambhir (Kolkata Knight Riders head coach), and Mahela Jayawardene (Mumbai Indians director of cricket).

“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,” Ponting noted.

“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.”

The last date to apply for India’s head coach’s position is May 27. After carefully reviewing the applications, the BCCI would then call the selected candidates for an interview with the Cricket Advisory Committee comprising Sulakshana Naik, Ashok Malhotra and Jatin Paranjape.