When Rahul Dravid prioritised family over coaching Team India

Rahul Dravid, the former Indian cricketer, had once gotten an offer from BCCI’s Committee of Administrators (CoA) to coach the national team. However, ‘The Wall’ of Indian cricket declined the offer, bearing in mind the upbringing of kids. The revelations were made by CoA chairman Vinod Rai.

Rai, nevertheless, respected his decision and said that Dravid, along with the likes of Anil Kumble and Ravi Shastri, are the best in the business. Rai also lauded Rahul for giving his heart and soul to his coaching stint with the National Cricket Academy (NCA).

Rahul Dravid’s request was fair, says Rai

“Rahul was very upfront with us. 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’,” Rai was quoted as saying on Sportskeeda.

“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,” he stated. “Dravid is a head coach at NCA. He was very kind and very gracious in accepting that and committing himself to the NCA,” Rai mentioned.

Dravid has garnered a number of laurels with the India U19 and A teams. Back in 2018, India, under the leadership of Prithvi Shaw, won the U19 World Cup in New Zealand. They beat Australia in the final and Dravid expressed his joy and pride after the game.

Rai praised Rahul for creating a ‘road-map’ for the development of Indian cricket. Moreover, he said that he’s a big fan of the retired Indian middle-order batsman.

“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 added. A number of young cricketers have also heaped praises on Dravid for shaping their career.

During his playing days, Dravid wasn’t the glam boy of Indian cricket. But the resilience he showed in the middle has gone on to inspire many. Having scored over 24,000 runs, he was a fulcrum of Team India across formats.