'Somewhere down the line, he will have the opportunity': Ganguly reveals an India legend 'was keen on national team job'

In November, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) named Rahul Dravid as the head coach of the Indian men's team for a contract of two years.

In November, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) named Rahul Dravid as the head coach of the Indian men's team for a contract of two years. Although the former Indian skipper remained the frontrunner to replace Ravi Shastri with multiple reports hinting at his appointment for the role, but BCCI President Sourav Ganguly revealed that there was another Indian batting legend who was keen to take the national team's job.

Sourav Ganguly (PTI)

Talking to journalist Boria Majumdar on Backstage with Boria, Ganguly revealed that his former teammate VVS Laxman was keen to coach the Indian team, and admitted that the veteran batsman would have the opportunity in the future.

“He was keen on the national team job, but that couldn’t worked out. But somewhere down the line, he will have that opportunity to coach the national team," he has said.

Laxman was eventually named as the head of the National Cricket Academy (NCA) replacing Dravid, who had served as the head of the NCA for four years before his tenure as a coach of India's under-19 team and the A team.

Ganguly revealed that convincing Dravid for the role of head coach was difficult given that the team is always on the road for a long stretch of almost eight to nine months.

"We had Rahul in mind for a long period of time, both me and Jay, but he wasn't agreeing because of the time away from home [and] because doing a national team's job is [about being] on the road for about 8-9 months in a year and he has two young children," he said.

Dravid began his tenure as head coach with the home series against New Zealand. India, under the new T20I skipper Rohit Sharma, won the series 3-0 before the Test team scripted a 1-0 win against the World Test Champions in the two-match series.