A senior Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) official on Sunday confirmed that former Indian batter VVS Laxman will be National Cricket Academy’s next head. He will be succeeding former India captain Rahul Dravid.

Dravid was recently appointed as chief coach of the Indian team following the end of Ravi Shastri’s tenure, as reported by PTI on October 26.

“VVS Laxman will be the new head of NCA,” the senior BCCI official told PTI on the condition of anonymity.

Laxman has already quit his role as a mentor of the Indian Premier League (IPL) team Sunrisers Hyderabad. He will also not be part of any commentary panel or write columns for newspapers to avoid conflict of interest clause violation.

It is understood that Laxman’s appointment will come into effect before the BCCI’s Annual General Meeting (AGM), scheduled to be held in Kolkata on December 4.

Initial reports suggested that Laxman had declined BCCI’s offer of becoming the head as he was reluctant to shift base from Hyderabad as the NCA job will require him to stay in Bengaluru for a minimum of 200 days.

The two stalwarts of Indian cricket — Laxman and Dravid — will now work in tandem as the BCCI wants smooth coordination between the India chief coach and the NCA head.

As part of his job, Laxman will also oversee preparations of the India U-19 and ‘A’ teams which are pathways to the senior level.

Commenting on his appointment as head coach, Dravid said,” It is an absolute honour to be appointed as the new head coach of the Indian cricket team and I am really looking forward to this role. Under Shastri, the team has done very well, and I hope to work with the team to take this forward. Having worked closely with most of the boys either at NCA, U19 and India A setup, I know they have the passion and desire to improve every day. There are some marquee multi-team events in the next two years, and I look forward to working with the players and the support staff to achieve our potential.”