‘I’d love to coach again in IPL’, say Ricky Ponting

NEW DELHI; Legendary Australian batter and World Cup-winning captain Ricky Ponting recently parted ways with the Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League (IPL). He then took on the role of head coach for Washington Freedom and led them to victory in the Major League Cricket (MLC).

While Ponting remains enthusiastic about coaching in the IPL and other leagues, he is not currently interested in taking on a role with any international team. Instead, he is keen to continue his association with an IPL franchise. “I’d love to coach again in the IPL”, he stated, as quoted by ICC.

The legendary batter, Ricky Ponting ruled out the possibility of taking up the job as England men’s team white-ball coach following departure of Matthew Mott, saying that international cricket jobs are not for him considering where he is at in his life right now.

Ponting turned down approaches from England to coach their Test side prior to Kiwi Brendon McCullum accepting the job, and the Australia legend recently finished a seven-year tenure in charge of the Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League, as per ICC.

He reflected on his time in the IPL, recalling his playing days and his subsequent coaching stint with the Mumbai Indians. During his coaching tenure, he played a key role in helping the team win the title in 2015.

“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. I think me going there was all about trying to bring some silverware to the team and that didn’t happen”, Ricky Ponting said.

Ponting reflected on his seven seasons with Delhi, noting that things didn’t turn out as well as he or the franchise had hoped. He explained that his aim in joining the team was to win a title, but he was unable to achieve that goal. He expects that Delhi will appoint someone local for the head coach position.

“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”, the former world champion said.

“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”, he further added. Ponting also expressed gratitude for his time with Delhi, mentioning that he met and worked with many great people and players over the years. He wished the franchise all the best.

“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,” he noted.

Ever since Ponting’s appointment as a coach in 2018, when the franchise was called Delhi Daredevils, Delhi qualified for the playoffs thrice, in 2019, 2020, and 2021. In fact, in the 2020 season, DC made it to the finals for the first-time ever, but lost to the Mumbai Indians (MI).

However, for the last three years, DC has failed to progress to the final four stages. This year, the franchise finished in the sixth spot, narrowly missing out on the playoffs on the basis of net-run-rate. They won and lost seven matches this year. (ANI)