IPL 2018: Ricky Ponting to be Next Delhi Daredevils Coach: Reports

Australia legend Ricky Ponting could become the next coach of IPL franchise Delhi Daredevils, a report in TOI suggests. The post was previously held by Rahul Dravid, who had to quit the job after he got appointed as the Head Coach of India A and India U-19 team.

As per the rule, a BCCI contracted coach cannot be associated with any other coaching assignment. Hence, not only Dravid, other coaches like Bharat Arun, R Sridhar, Paras Mhambrey had to quit their job after completion of the tenth edition of IPL.

“Ponting is most likely to be signed up by the Daredevils as their next coach. However, apart from the Daredevils, he’s also being wooed by the Rajasthan Royals,” a source told TOI on Thursday.

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If appointed, this will be the second stint of Ponting with an IPL team. He was associated with Mumbai Indians from 2014 to 2016. In 2014, he performed the role of advisor while he was elevated to the post of Head Coach in 2015 for two years.

After the end of his two-year contract, the franchise did not renew his contract and replaced him with Mahela Jayawardene, who coached the side to a title victory in IPL 2017.

Before working as a coach, Ponting also played for Mumbai Indians as a player in 2013 before relinquishing the captaincy, before Rohit Sharma led the team to the title in the same edition.

With IPL all set to undergo a major revamp in the next season, with might see many more transfers in the days to come. As of now, there has been no confirmed news about the retention of players, as some franchises want players to be retained, whereas, some are not in favour of this policy.

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If the retention policy gets retained, then we might see players like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, getting retained by their franchises. A final decision on this is yet to come out.