Rahul Dravid turned down the opportunity to coach the senior team, saying that he had "unfinished tasks" with the U-19 team. He eventually led the side to U-19 World Cup win next year.
In a highly publicised recruitment process for the role of head coach of the Indian team in 2017, Ravi Shastri succeeded Anil Kumble. Now, the chairman of the Supreme Court-led Committee of Administrators Vinod Rai has revealed that Rahul Dravid was also approached for the role at the time.
The CoA was formed in 2017 and governed the administration at the BCCI for 33 months before reaching its formal end in October 2019, when Sourav Ganguly was elected as the president of the board.
In an interview, Vinod Rai revealed that Dravid, who was serving as coach of India A and the U-19 team at the time, turned down the role.
“Rahul was very upfront with us,” Rai told SportsKeeda.
"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.”
Rai further said that Dravid, Shastri and Kumble are few of the best coaches in Indian cricket at the moment. He said that the legendary Indian batsman was preparing the U-19 team for the 2018 World Cup at the time and didn't want to leave the task "unfinished." (ALSO READ: Ganguly reveals why Tendulkar forced him to take strike during playing days)
“Look, in terms of potential for coaching, Dravid, Shastri and Kumble are the best in the business,” Rai said.
“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.”
Under Dravid's coaching, India eventually lifted the 2018 U-19 World Cup title. The former Indian captain currently serves at the head coach at National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru.
“Dravid is a head coach at NCA. He was very kind and very gracious in accepting that and committing himself to the NCA," said Rai.
