BCCI's advisory panel of Sachin, Sourav and Laxman picked Kumble as the head coach of the Indian team. (Reuters Photo)

The Cricket Advisory Committee of the BCCI had shortlisted 21 candidates from the 57 applicants who had applied for the head coach's post of the Indian cricket team and finally it was former captain Anil Kumble who bagged the job on Thursday.

The news of Kumble's appointment was met with loud cheers from the current Indian squad with the likes of Test captain Virat Kohli and opener Shikhar Dhawan welcoming the move. But the legendary leg-spinner was not the first choice for the post.

BCCI president Anurag Thakur has revealed that the board had initially approached former India captain Rahul Dravid but he turned down the offer citing family reasons.

"I requested Rahul Dravid to coach the Indian team. He didn't say no, but said that he will work for the junior team," Thakur told NDTV on Thursday.

Dravid instead wanted to take care of the junior team. The legendary batsman was appointed coach of the the India A and Under-19 teams in June 2015. Under him, the Under-19 team reached the World Cup final in Bangladesh earlier this year.

"That is the good thing about Dravid. He didn't go for the senior team post, big money and all. He wanted to work for the junior cricketers and not the senior team," Thakur added.

FAMILY COMES FIRST

Dravid had earlier made his intentions pretty clear and said that he is more comfortable doing short stints as a coach.

"I can only do short-term assignments, I can't stay away from home for long periods of time, short assignments suit me better."

"Any decision that I make at this stage of my life would depend on whether I have the bandwidth to do all of these things. It takes time. You can never really say that now you are ready and now you are not.

That's an experience, a learning. You have to do it to only know. Everyday you do it and you want to learn."

Kumble was ultimately picked for the job ahead of former Team Director Ravi Shastri, and has been given a one-year contract by the BCCI.