Vinod Rai revealed how former India captain Rahul Dravid turned down the offer for the Indian cricket team’s head coach. Dravid, as told by Rai wanted to spend time with family and hence did not accept the high-profile role.
Dravid turned down head coach role
Former chairman of the Committee of Administrators in a recent interview disclosed that the panel approach Rahul Dravid for the post of the head coach of the Indian men’s cricket team in 2017 after Anil Kumble’s tenure came to an end. He was then serving as coach of the India A and Under-19 teams. When Dravid was approached for the role, he decided to turn it down. “Rahul was very upfront with us. He said, ‘look I have two boys growing up at home and I have been travelling with the Indian team all over the world and I am not able to give time and attention to them, I think I must stay at home also. And give time to my family.’ I think that was a very fair request and though he would have been uppermost in mind. So, he was very much in the zone of consideration.”
Win-win for CoA
Rai further informed that Dravid was eager to continue working the junior teams albeit. So the post of head coach eventually went to Ravi Shastri and CoA was absolutely fine with it. “Look, in terms of potential for coaching, Dravid, Shastri and Kumble are the best in the business. We definitely talked to Rahul. He was engaged with the Under-19 team and he was involved with them. He had developed a road map on how to develop a team. He was bringing out fantastic results. He wanted to continue because he felt that there were some unfinished tasks with that team and he wanted to do it.”
Later Dravid was appointed as the National Cricket Academy head and according to Rai, India’s batting legend was happy to accept that. “Dravid is a head coach at NCA. He was very kind and very gracious in accepting that and committing himself to the NCA.”
