Even being eligible for the positions of bowling and fielding coaches of the Indian men’s team, both Bharat Arun and R Sridhar respectively, have reportedly decided not to apply for the jobs.
Recently, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had issued advertisements for the posts however, reports suggest that the duo have formally informed the board about their decision not to seek extensions.
According to the notification issued by the BCCI, the aspirants or incumbents should not be 60 at the time of appointment and Arun will not be 59 by then while Sridhar is only 51. However, both of them have been associated with Team India for more than six years and have now decided to look for other opportunities.
It is also understood that as Rahul Dravid is all set to take over as the post of the new head coach, it is most likely that he will have his own set of support staff.
Notably, the ongoing T20 World Cup is the last assignment of the duo.
Meanwhile, reports have also suggested that the duo have received offers from Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises.
At present, current National Cricket Academy (NCA) chief Dravid is all set to take over as the next head coach of the Indian cricket team after the upcoming T20 World Cup.
As per reports, after some initial reluctance, 48-year-old Dravid had agreed to the BCCI’s offer.
“Dravid has confirmed he will be the next head coach of the Indian team. He will be stepping down as the head of the NCA soon,” a top BCCI official was quoted as saying by the Times of India (TOI) recently.
“He (Rahul Dravid) was re-appointed as the NCA head last month. But the BCCI needed a strong candidate to take Indian cricket forward. He has worked so hard to develop the next line of Indian cricketers,” added the BCCI source.
Reportedly, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah held a meeting with Dravid and persuaded him to take up the role.
Dravid was previously in charge of India A and India U19 teams.
As a coach, Dravid is best known for strengthing the bench strength of India as ace cricketers like Rishabh Pant, Avesh Khan, Prithvi Shaw, Hanuma Vihari, and Shubman Gill have all come through a system created by him.
Earlier this year, Dravid had served as the head coach of the Indian team during the tour of Sri Lanka.