Ex-South African cricketer and 2011 World Cup-winning coach Gary Kirsten has revealed the key reasons for his brief tenure with the Pakistan national team. Elected as the white-ball coach in April 2024, Kirsten resigned just six months into the job, attributing very little control over important decisions as the major reason for his resignation.
Kirsten admitted that he soon discovered he would not be able to produce the sort of impact he was looking to make. Although an initial optimism prevailed, it quickly turned out that his role would not be accompanied with the autonomy or assistance necessary to produce significant changes in Pakistan’s white-ball structure.
His departure came not long after then Pakistan Test team head coach Jason Gillespie resigned as well. Gillespie had been in charge during Pakistan’s historic ODI series victory in Australia but ultimately left due to the same exasperations within the system.
Kirsten, who was also Gujarat Titans’ batting coach in the Indian Premier League (IPL), hasn’t ruled out a return to Pakistan cricket. He indicated that he would be happy to resume a coaching role—but under terms that enable him to perform his job properly and with no interference.
Though Kirsten continues to be among the most highly regarded figures in global coaching, his short stint with Pakistan serves to underscore the continuing issues with the management and organization of the team.
“It was a tumultuous few months. I realised quite quickly I wasn’t going to have much of an influence. Once I was taken off selection and asked to take a team and not be able to shape the team, it became very difficult as a coach then to have any sort of positive influence on the group,” Kirsten said on the Wisden Podcast.
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“If I got invited back to Pakistan tomorrow, I would go, but I would want to go for the players, and I would want to go under the right circumstances. Cricket teams need to be run by cricket people. When that’s not happening and when there’s a lot of noise from the outside that’s very influential noise, it’s very difficult for leaders within the team to walk a journey that you feel like you need to walk in order to take this team to where it needs to go.”
“I’m too old now to be dealing with other agendas; I just want to coach a cricket team and work with the players – I love the Pakistan players; they’re great guys. I had a very short period of time with them, and I feel for them. More than any other team in the world, they feel the pressure of performance massively; when they lose, it’s hectic for them, and they feel that.”
“But they’re professional cricketers, and I’m a professional cricket coach. When we get into that environment, there are generally certain things you do to help a team be the best that they can be, and when there’s no interference, you go down the road, and if it’s a talented group of guys, you’re generally going to have success,” he concluded.
