In a recent interview given to Boria Majumder, former India captain Sourav Ganguly revealed that Rahul Dravid had initially said no to the coaching job of the national cricket team. He also said that it was only after a lot of convincing that Rahul agreed to do it.
His main concern was the amount of time the job requires.
We had Rahul in mind for a long period of time but he wasn’t agreeing, because doing the national team job means you’re on the road for 9-10 months and he has two young children. At one stage, we gave up.
Following this, Rahul was appointed the head of NCA, but when Ganguly go back to the players, they wanted someone like Dravid in mind, and the same was communicated to him.
This moved something in Dravid as he ultimately agreed to take up the role. Ganguly did his part in assuring the coach that he can do this for 2 years and then the management will see how to move forward.
Throwing light on the vision of the BCCI, Ganguly said that the board wants Indian coaches for the team going forward.
I have a lot of respect for overseas coaches, but I think time has come to give our boys a chance.
Well, we just feel lucky that Dravid said yes.