Arjuna Ranatunga makes a point to Rahul Dravid in Glasgow on Tuesday. Picture: Pradeep Mandhani/imageallsports.com

Glasgow: The 1996 World Cup-winning captain, Arjuna Ranatunga, is “keen” on coaching Team India.

“I’m definitely keen, but sending a formal application won’t look good… I’m available if somebody from the Indian establishment wishes to interact with me,” the iconic Sri Lankan told The Telegraph on Tuesday.

He added: “My name, I understand, was raised during the first meeting of your special committee (in Bangalore)… Apparently, somebody said I didn’t have any experience as a coach… I don’t see that as a liability. In any case, can a Sachin Tendulkar be coached? It’s the mental preparation that’s important…”

The six-member special committee has three former captains — Srinivas Venkatraghavan, Sunil Gavaskar (who is close to Arjuna) and Ravi Shastri.

As the Rahul Dravids are still without a coach, it’s bound to meet again, sooner rather than later.

Arjuna, who is in his second term as a Member of Parliament, pointed out he wouldn’t have a problem getting leave. “There’s a protocol in place and I’ll have to apply to the Speaker… Leave from Parliament won’t be an issue…”

As his wife and children have shifted to London (“for better education”), Arjuna makes quite a few Colombo-London trips every year. It’s from London that he drove over for what would have been an explosive Indo-Pak ODI.

Sadly, not one ball was sent down.

Among those Arjuna met was Dravid. “Oh, I got a lot of stick in Sri Lanka for backing you in the World Cup…” he said in mock anger. Pretty embarrassed, Dravid replied with a “sorry” and “thanks for supporting us.”

According to Arjuna, the World Cup format needs to be changed.

“What should be taken into account is that teams could have a bad day… In my opinion, the 1992 round-robin structure, where each side played at least eight matches, was good… That allowed teams to recover from one or two bad games… Pakistan even took home the Cup…”

Dravid indicated he, too, favoured a review.