Melbourne:
Michael Hussey was approached by former India batsman VVS Laxman for the post of Indian team’s head coach, the ex-Australian cricketer has revealed in his latest book.
Laxman had approached Hussey during the last IPL, barely a month before the Indian cricketer was inducted by the BCCI into its three-member advisory panel that was assigned with finding India’s head coach in place of Duncan Fletcher, who departed following the 2015 World Cup.
“The former Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene rang me a while ago to ask if I would be interested in being an assistant coach of Sri Lanka with a view to taking over as head coach a few months further down the track,” Hussey wrote in ‘Winning Edge’, his third book that was released recently.
“A week later the ex-India batsman VVS Laxman asked me if I would be interested in coaching India. My initial answer to both of them was no because at the time I did not want to be on the road 10 months a year; I wanted to be at home with my family and make up for some lost time from the previous few years. But, probably more relative to them, I said to each that I did not think I was ready to become the head coach of an international cricket team,” he added.
Since Fletcher’s exit, former India allrounder Ravi Shastri has played the caretaker’s role in his position as team director.
The term of Shastri, who took over as the team director in August 2014, along with the trio of assistant coaches— Sanjay Bangar (batting), Bharat Arun (bowling) and R Sridhar (fielding) -- will expire after the World Twenty20.
Since his retirement in 2013, Hussey has worked in various consulting roles with the South Africa team at last year’s ODI World Cup, and is all set to assist Darren Lehmann’s Australian squad at the upcoming World T20.
