Reports: Rahul Dravid politely refuses BCCI's offer for India coach

It is learned that Rahul Dravid has politely refused the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) offer to take up the senior men’s team coach role. The BCCI offer comes after incumbent India head coach Ravi Shastri has announced that the upcoming T20 World Cup, scheduled in the United Arab Emirates and Oman from October 17 to November 14, will be his final assignment with the Indian team.

Alongside Shastri, other support staff members including bowling coach Bharat Arun and fielding coach R Sridhar are also expected to vacate their posts, while senior team’s strength and conditioning coach Nick Webb has also confirmed his exit after the impending World Cup.

As for Dravid, the 48-year-old has been at the helm of the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bangalore and is also the incumbent in charge of the Under19 and India A teams. This is not the first time when Dravid has been offered a role with the senior team, however, he has opted to concentrate on junior cricket and serving at the NCA, having previously declined BCCI’s request in 2016 and 2017.

Highly respected across all cricketing circles, Dravid has been responsible for nurturing and guiding young and raw talents under his watchful eyes for years, enabling India to have enviable bench strength and a constant supply of players at the international level.

Dravid has previously served as India’s overseas batting consultant in 2018, while, more recently, he travelled as the team’s coach to Sri Lanka for the limited-overs series in July, in the absence of Shastri, Arun and Vikram Rathour, who were all involved with the Indian Test squad in the United Kingdom from early June to mid-September for the World Test Championship final and the five-Test Pataudi trophy against England.

It is understood, meanwhile, that the BCCI, as per the terms laid out under its constitution, will officially advertise for the post of India’s head coach closer to the tenure end of the current staff.

All the T20 World Cup-bound Indian players and other support staff members are currently in the UAE, with most of them involved in the Indian Premier League’s 2021 edition, which concludes on October 15, only two days before the start of T20 World Cup qualifiers.

India will begin their campaign against Pakistan on October 24.