Before the ball-tampering scandal, Ricky Ponting wanted to be Australia’s T20 coach

Darren Lehmann, the former head coach of the Australian men’s cricket team, has disclosed that he wanted Ricky Ponting to manage the team in the shorter format. Before the Sandpaper Gate issue put Australian cricket in a bad position, Lehmann wanted a former Australian captain to be the T20 head coach.

“I think I coached for too long now,” Lehmann told the Herald and The Age. “I probably should have given up a year earlier. When you’re away from home 300 days a year, I think four years is a good cycle.”

“Because you won’t have to do everything if you share the duty, it will last longer. And it must be done correctly in order for the T20 team to specialise. That’s just common sense.”

Ponting, who served as an assistant coach to Lehmann during the 2017-18 summer and subsequent white-ball tour of New Zealand, made it apparent that he wanted to be Australia’s T20 coach.

Ponting, who coached the Mumbai Indians to an IPL title, is now coaching the Delhi Capitals in the UAE, who are currently in the first place. At the time, he told the Herald and The Age that he was “quite interested.”

“I had a few conversations with Pat Howard. Because there was no time pressure, it never got into the details of specifics, schedule, resources, organisation, and so on,” Ponting added. “It was an open-end conversation.

“However, the circumstances in South Africa in March 2018 prompted so much upheaval in Australian cricket, and the decision to replace Darren Lehmann with Justin Langer in all three formats was certainly the right one.”

“Since then, a lot has happened in my life. My coaching emphasis remains the IPL, which aligns well with my media duties with the Seven Network, Cricket Australia, and Sky in the United Kingdom. The remaining of the year is spent with my family and I have never had a better work/life balance. To take on a national position right now, I’d have to give up a lot. It’s just not the right moment for me right now.”