Ricky Ponting turns down BCCI offer to coach Team India, citing lifestyle reasons

Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting has declined an offer from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to coach Team India. The BCCI approached Ponting during IPL 2024, but he cited lifestyle reasons for not accepting the role.

Ponting expressed his interest in coaching an international team but said the timing was not right for him. "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," he explained on an episode of the ICC Review.

Rahul Dravid is unlikely to re-apply for the coaching position, and the BCCI has invited applications for the next head coach. Mahela Jayawardene, Stephen Fleming, Gautam Gambhir, and Justin Langer are some of the top names being considered.

Ponting shared that his family, especially his son, was enthusiastic about the possibility of him coaching in India. "My family and my kids have spent the last five weeks over at the IPL with me and they come over every year and I had a whisper to my son about it, and I said, ‘Dad’s been offered the Indian coaching job’ and he said, 'Just take it dad, we would love to move over there for the next couple of years.' 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."