Cricket legend Ricky Ponting is the “lost treasure of Australian coaching”, says senior News Corp cricket writer Robert Craddock.
The former Australian captain is the current head coach of IPL franchise the Delhi Capitals and is an expert commentator with free-to-air broadcaster Channel 7.
Ponting briefly served as an assistant coach under Darren Lehmann in Australia’s T20 set-up in 2018 and says “time commitments” have prevented him for taking up head coaching roles with national teams.
“Time is the only thing that's stopping me to be honest,” Ponting told The Grade Cricketer podcast.
“I’d love to coach the Australian team, but what I have done with my playing career was being away from family as much.
“I have a young family now, a seven-year-old boy, and to give up 300 days a year is not what I would do. That's where the IPL works so well for me.
“To be able to coach 8-10 weeks in winter months, and to be able to come back and do the Channel 7 stuff in the summer, I have got enough work to keep me happy and to keep me around the game but also be able to spend time with the family.”
Craddock said former Australian coach Justin Langer is a huge fan of Ponting’s coaching credentials.
“Ponting’s the lost treasure of Australian coaching,” Craddock told SEN’s Whateley.
“I did an interview when Justin Langer started his job and when we turned the tape off he said, ‘I’ll tell you this, the best coach in the world is Ponting’.
“Clipped advice, gives you 20-word sentences, players love him, but you’ll never get him to coach Australia.”
Ponting slammed Cricket Australia’s handling of Langer’s exit as head coach of the Australian national team earlier this month.
“I actually think that’s a really sad day as far as Australian cricket is concerned,” Pointing told ABC Radio.
“It has been a really poor six months for the way that Cricket Australia as a whole have handled some of the better people in Australian cricket, being Justin Langer and Tim Paine.
“I think it's almost been embarrassing the way they've handled those two cases.”
Ponting is Australia’s leading run-scorer in Test and ODI cricket.