'He wasn't agreeing. At one stage we gave up': Ganguly on difficulties in convincing Dravid to become India's head coach

BCCI President Sourav Ganguly on Sunday revealed how hard he had to work to convince legendary India cricketer Rahul Dravid to take up the job of the men's national team coach.

While speaking to journalist Boria Majumdar on the show 'Backstage with Boria', former India skipper revealed that he and secretary Jay Shah always had Dravid's name in mind and that it was a tough task to get him to agree.

"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.

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"At one stage we gave up, he was appointed as the head of NCA (National Cricket Academy, Bengaluru) to look after it and take things forward. We had done all the interviews and everything, his interview and application, and he was appointed at the NCA. But even after he was appointed, we still kept insisting," explained Ganguly.

The former left-hander and Dravid's teammate also added that from the various conversations he had with players, it became clear to him that everyone wanted him to come on board.

"And when we spoke to the players also [about] what sort of person they want, you could clearly see that, you know, there was an inclination to Rahul so we communicated that to him. I spoke to him personally many times [saying] that, 'I know it's hard but give it a try for two years, and if you find it too hard then we'll see another way'.

"Luckily he agreed and I don't know what triggered the change in his mind but he agreed and I think this is the best BCCI could have done in terms of coaching once Ravi [Shastri] left," concluded Ganguly.