Ricky Ponting Not Interested in India Head Coach Role

Australia great Ricky Ponting was considered for the position of head coach for India, but the 49-year-old stated he is not interested in taking over Rahul Dravid's prominent position.

Since Dravid's contract is set to expire at the end of the T20 World Cup next month and he is apparently unwilling to continue, the India cricket board has advertised the position.

Ponting has been the Indian Premier League (IPL) head coach of the Delhi franchise since 2018. He has previously served as Australia's temporary T20 coach.

"During the IPL, there were a few brief one-on-one conversations, just to gauge my interest in the idea of doing it," Ponting said on Thursday to the International Cricket Council.

"While I would love to be a senior coach for a national team, I also want to spend some time at home with my other responsibilities.

"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."

It "just doesn't fit into my lifestyle right now" for Ponting to be the head coach of a national team, which would require him to travel for 10–11 months a year.

For one of the hardest jobs in sports, a number of other IPL coaches are also in the running.

Kolkata Knight Riders' coach, former India opener Gautam Gambhir, is a serious contender after leading the team to the 10-team league final this year.

The Indian media is also connecting the highly qualified Stephen Fleming of the Chennai Super Kings and Justin Langer of the Lucknow Super Giants with the position.

According to Ponting, his son would be OK to him accepting the position and temporarily moving to cricket-mad India.

"That's how much they love being over there and the culture of cricket in India, but right now it probably doesn't exactly fit into my lifestyle."

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