Ricky Ponting turns down role of England coach, hopes to return to IPL: Ricky Ponting has revealed he would not consider any offers to become England’s white-ball coach, as the Australia great considers his coaching future in the IPL and around the world.
The recent departure of Matthew Mott as England’s white-ball coach has left a vacancy in one of the most sought-after roles in world cricket and a number of former players and head coaches – including Ponting – have already been linked with the position by the cricket media.
Before Kiwi Brendon McCullum took the job as England’s Test captain, Ponting had declined offers to manage the national team. The Australian icon most recently finished a seven-year tenure as head coach of the Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League.
But Ponting dismissed any links to the position while speaking to host Sanjana Ganesan on the most recent episode of ICC Review, revealing he still has plenty of work to do despite his recent departure from Delhi.
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“No, I wouldn’t ever consider doing that actually,” Ponting remarked when asked if he would consider the England white-ball coaching position.
“I’m on record saying that international jobs for me right now are not really where my life is at as there’s just so much more time taken up with an international job.
“I’ve got other commitments as well, with my TV work and things that I do and also trying to balance that out with having a decent amount of home time, which I haven’t had much of the last couple of years anyway.
“Coaching other international teams is one thing, coaching England for an Australian is probably something slightly different, but right now there’s sort of enough on my plate as I’ve got a bit more coming up in the next couple of months in the UK.
“Australia’s got some white-ball stuff coming up over there which I’ll go and commentate, so no, right now if my name was on the list they can actually take it off.”
The former Australian cricket legend and currently the coach of his side, is still keen to add more to his impressive coaching resume.
Ponting had revealed on ICC Review earlier this year that he had some informal talks about the India head coach position which Gautam Gambhir took as a replacement for Rahul Dravid.
The three-time winner of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup recently concluded a thrilling tournament in the United States as the champion coach of the Major League Cricket team of Washington Freedom.
He still has another year left on his contract to play in Major League Cricket in addition to his numerous television and commentary gigs around the world.
Risky Ponting has expressed hope of returning to coaching in the IPL. “I’d love to coach again in the IPL,” he stated.
“I’ve had a great time every year that I’ve been involved, whether that was in the early days as a player or the couple of years I had at Mumbai as head coach there. And then I’ve had seven seasons at Delhi, which unfortunately didn’t really work out the way that I would have wanted and certainly the way that the franchise would have wanted. I think me going there was all about trying to bring some silverware to the team and that didn’t happen.”
Ricky Ponting expects Delhi to take a different approach in selecting their next coach, and the Australian believes the franchise will likely appoint a local person for the position.
“They made it pretty clear that they wanted to head in a different direction with someone that could give them a bit more time and a bit more availability through the off-season, really more than anything to be able to spend a bit more time in India with a lot of the local players. I just couldn’t do that with the other stuff that I’ve got going on,” Ponting said.
“I think what you’ll find is that they’ll probably end up with an Indian-based head coach. Certainly that’s some of the dialogue that I’ve had with them anyway.
“But I’m really thankful for my time that I had there, met some great people, worked with some great people and obviously worked with some great players through the years as well. So I wish them all the very best but as I said there could be a few opportunities for me popping up in the next couple of months and I’d love to be back coaching in the IPL again next season.”
Source: ICC
