Former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting has ruled himself out of accepting the position of England’s white-ball head coach, left vacant by the departure of Matthew Mott.
Mott recently stepped down as England’s white-ball coach following their T20 World Cup semi-final exit. While assistant coach Marcus Trescothick will take charge for the rest of the summer on an interim basis, England are actively looking for Mott’s successor on a long-term basis.
While several prominent names are in the mix, including Andrew Flintoff, Jonathan Trott, Michael Hussey, and Simon Katich, there are no clear contenders at this point. Eoin Morgan’s name was too thrown in by many pundits as a possible replacement, but the former white-ball skipper distanced himself from the position.
Ricky Ponting latest to back away from England's coaching role
Ponting, whose coaching tenure with IPL team Delhi Capitals ended this year, became the latest to turn down a potential offer publicly. Speaking to the ICC, the former Australia captain confirmed his decision, saying he is currently swamped with "other commitments": "No, I wouldn't ever consider doing that [coaching England] actually. I'm on record saying that international jobs for me right now are not really where my life is at as there's just so much more time taken up with an international job."
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Ponting added: "I've got other commitments as well, with my TV work and things that I do and also trying to balance that out with having a decent amount of home time, which I haven't had much of the last couple of years anyway."
"Coaching other international teams is one thing, coaching England for an Australian is probably something slightly different, but right now there's sort of enough on my plate as I've got a bit more coming up in the next couple of months in the UK," Ponting said. "Australia's got some white-ball stuff coming up over there [in England] which I'll go and commentate, so no, right now if my name was on the list they can actually take it off."
Ponting had also revealed he was approached by the BCCI for India’s head coach role earlier this year, but board secretary Jay Shah was quick to debunk the claims. Gautam Gambhir was eventually entrusted with the job, with his tenure beginning in the recently concluded tour of Sri Lanka.
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