(IPL Credit)
Following Matthew Mott’s resignation as England’s white-ball head coach after the team’s failure to advance to the T20 World Cup 2024 finals, several names have been speculated for the position, including Freddie Flintoff, Kumar Sangakkara, Andy Flower, and Ricky Ponting. While Sangakkara has confirmed that the ECB has not approached him and speculation around Flintoff has diminished, Ponting has now officially ruled himself out of contention.
Ponting, who recently ended his tenure with Delhi Capitals, stated that he is not pursuing any international coaching roles at this time. The 49-year-old explained that he is focusing on television work and wants to spend more time at home, which is why he is not considering any offers from international teams.
The former cricketer also mentioned that, as an Australian, it would feel somewhat unusual for him to take on a coaching role with England. He suggested that the ECB should remove his name from consideration if it was still on their list.
“No, I wouldn’t ever consider doing that actually. 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,” Ponting said in the recent episode of the ICC review.
“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,” he added.
Ponting had previously disclosed that the BCCI had approached him with an offer to succeed Rahul Dravid as the head coach of the Indian team. However, he declined the opportunity, as he was not interested in pursuing international coaching roles at that time.
