"I'd love to coach again in the IPL" - Ricky Ponting after ending his stint with Delhi Capitals
Ex-Australian skipper Ricky Ponting has expressed interest in becoming a coach in the IPL again after stepping down from the same capacity for the Delhi Capitals quite recently. The 49-year-old has revealed that the Capitals wanted a candidate who could spend more time in India with the local players ahead of the season.
Ponting was unveiled as the coach of the Capitals ahead of the 2018 edition and held the role until this year's season. The Tasmanian's best performance has been propeling the franchise to the final in the 2020 edition, but the Capitals failed to win the trophy in all these years.
Speaking in an episode of the ICC Review, Ponting reflected that he has had a great time in the IPL as a coach despite his stint with Delhi not going as per plan. He said:
"I'd love to coach again in the IPL. I've had a great time every year that I've been involved, whether that was in the early days as a player or the couple of years I had at Mumbai as head coach there. And then I've had seven seasons at Delhi, which unfortunately didn't really work out the way that I would have wanted and certainly the way that the franchise would have wanted."
The 168-Test veteran stated that he found it hard to commit to the Capitals, who demanded he spend his majority of time in India scouting local talents:
"They made it pretty clear that they wanted to head in a different direction with someone that could give them a bit more time and a bit more availability through the off-season, really more than anything to be able to spend a bit more time in India with a lot of the local players. I just couldn't do that with the other stuff that I've got going on. I think what you'll find is that they'll probably end up with an Indian-based head coach. Certainly that's some of the dialogue that I've had with them anyway."
Ponting has a promising coaching resume, scripting an IPL title win for the Mumbai Indians and doing the same for the Washington Freedom in Major League Cricket (MLC).
"There could be a few opportunities for me popping up in the next couple of months" - Ricky Ponting
Ponting further stated that he met some great people along the way while coaching the Capitals and wished the franchise good luck. He also added that he expects a few opportunities for himself in the next couple of months:
"But I'm really thankful for my time that I had there, met some great people, worked with some great people and obviously worked with some great players through the years as well. So I wish them all the very best but as I said there could be a few opportunities for me popping up in the next couple of months and I'd love to be back coaching in the IPL again next season."
According to reports, Sourav Ganguly is a frontrunner to become the Capitals' next coach.