File photo of Justin Langer© AFP
Former Australian cricket team batter Justin Langer was one of the names that were being considered to be frontrunners in the race to become India’s next head coach. The BCCI were reportedly looking at several options to replace Rahul Dravid as his contract will end after the upcoming T20 World Cup. However, Langer has opted out of the race as he said that these kinds of jobs can be ‘exhausting’ and he also mentioned a conversation with KL Rahul during their time with Lucknow Super Giants during IPL 2024. Langer revealed that Rahul told him that the ‘politics and pressure’ faced by the Indian cricket team head coach is almost ‘a thousand times’ that of any IPL coach.
“I know that it’s an all-encompassing role and having done it for four years with the Australian team, it’s exhausting,” Langer said during his interaction on BBC Stumped.
“I was talking to KL Rahul and he said, ‘You know, if you think there’s pressure and politics in an IPL team, multiply that by a thousand, [that’s] coaching India. That was a good bit of advice, I guess.”
Earlier, Langer’s former teammate Ricky Ponting also somewhat distanced himself from the job.
“I’ve seen a lot of reports about it,” Ponting told the ICC Review. “Normally these things pop up on social media before you even know about them, but there were a few little one-on-one conversations during the IPL, just to get a level of interest from me as to whether I would do it.”
“I’d love to be a senior coach of a national team, but with the other things that I have in my life and wanting to have a bit of time at home…everyone knows if you take a job working with the Indian team you can’t be involved in an IPL team, so it would take that out of it as well.”
“Also, a national head coach is a ten- or 11-month-of-the-year job, and as much as I’d like to do it, it just doesn’t fit into my lifestyle right now and the things that I really enjoy doing,” he added.
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