At one stage we gave up: Sourav Ganguly reveals how he convinced Rahul Dravid to take India’s head coach role

It was earlier reported that the current head coach of the Indian team Rahul Dravid was reluctant to take up the new role because of the hectic schedule of the national side.

It is well known that Team India is always on the road for a major part of the year and Dravid wanted to be with his young family.

Dravid had the experience of coaching Under-19 and India A teams and he was the Director of the National Cricket Academy, which is in Bangalore. However, the BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah wanted to appoint Rahul Dravid as the new chief coach after the tenure of Ravi Shastri ended.

Ganguly revealed that when he interacted with the team players, they all wanted a coach like Rahul Dravid, who has been a guiding light for a lot of them during their India A and Under 19 journeys.

Dravid finally changed his mind and decided to take the bridle of Indian cricket. Ganguly and Jay Shah were able to convince the former skipper to take up the new role during the IPL 2021 final meeting.

Sourav Ganguly said in an interview with Boria Majumdar, “We had Rahul in mind for a long period of time, both me and Jay, but he wasn’t agreeing because of the time away from home [and] because doing a national team’s job is [about being] on the road for about 8-9 months in a year and he has two young children.

“At one stage we gave up, he was appointed as the head of NCA (National Cricket Academy, Bengaluru) to look after it and take things forward. We had done all the interviews and everything, his interview and application, and he was appointed at the NCA. But even after he was appointed, we still kept insisting.”

Sourav Ganguly added: “And when we spoke to the players also [about] what sort of person they want, you could clearly see that, you know, there was an inclination to Rahul so we communicated that to him. I spoke to him personally many times [saying] that, ‘I know it’s hard but give it a try for two years, and if you find it too hard then we’ll see another way’.

“Luckily he agreed and I don’t know what triggered the change in his mind but he agreed and I think this is the best BCCI could have done in terms of coaching once Ravi [Shastri] left.”

On the other hand, Sourav Ganguly heaped praise on Ravi Shastri for doing a fabulous job during his stint as the head coach. India won twice in Australia under Shastri’s tutelage while they took a 2-1 lead against England in English conditions in 2021.

Meanwhile, India won their maiden T20I series under Rahul Dravid against New Zealand and are also on the brink of winning their first Test match against the same team.