Former England rugby coach Eddie Jones has revealed he wants to move into cricket’s Indian Premier League, insisting he could “100 per cent” win the IPL.
Jones is England’s most successful coach by win percentage, took the team to the 2019 World Cup final in Japan before being sacked and replaced by incumbent Steve Borthwick, and is currently enjoying a second spell in Japan.
But at 65 years old he is not looking at leaving coaching anytime soon, and has eyed a move to the subcontinent – and a brand new sport.
“I want to become an IPL coach,” Jones told the podcast A Load of BS on Sport.
“I love cricket. In cricket the role of coaches is changing a lot. Before, as Ian Chappell used to say, it was a case of getting to the ground and back.
“But now they’re becoming really important. The games are getting more tactical because [teams] can win in so many different ways. It can be enormous fun.
“100 per cent [I could win the IPL competition].”
“I want to become an IPL coach,” Jones told the podcast A Load of BS on Sport.
IPL beckons?
Current or former IPL coaches include Shane Warne, Trevor Bayliss, Andy Flower, Stephen Fleming and Brendon McCullum. All coaches in the Indian Premier League have played some form of professional cricket or have been cricket-only coaches for their entire careers.
It would make Jones the first of his kind in the sport, and the Australian could face a further obstacle because the IPL has been criticised for not using enough Indian coaches.
World Cup winning England rugby coach Sir Clive Woodward attempted to replicate his success in football but lasted just a year in various technical roles at Southampton.
The IPL is beginning to see a global expansion, with franchises in South Africa, the USA and England’s Hundred bearing the names of Indian cricket teams.
To listen to Dan Biggar and Dan Ross’s full interview with Eddie Jones on the new series of A Load of BS on Sport click here.