Rahul Dravid, former India captain and current Head of National Cricket Academy, had prioritised family over India coaching job when he was asked a few years ago.
Speaking in a Facebook video chat with Sportskeeda, former COA chairman Vinod Rai said that Rahul was one of the top candidates for the job of head coach, however, the fomer captain chose to opt-out saying ‘family first’.
“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.’ 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,” Rai said.
He added that Rahul’s name came into contention second time around when Kumble’s tenure ended after the Champions Trophy in 2017.
“Look, in terms of potential for coaching, Dravid, Shastri and Kumble are the best in the business. 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 wanted to continue because he felt that there were some unfinished task with that team and he wanted to do it,” Rai added.
Rai said that he is a huge fan of Rahul and that Rahul was gracious enough in accepting the job at NCA.
“Dravid is a head coach at NCA. He was very kind and very gracious in accepting that and committing himself to the NCA,” Rai said.
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