Gary Kirsten opens up on early exit as Pakistan's white-ball coach

KARACHI: Former Pakistan white-ball head coach Gary Kirsten has broken his silence about his early exit from the national team, attributing his resignation to a lack of authority and interference from external sources.

Speaking on the Wisden Cricket podcast, Kirsten described his short tenure with Pakistan as “tumultuous” and admitted that he quickly realised he had little influence over key cricketing matters, particularly team selection.

“It was a tumultuous few months,” Kirsten said. “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 to have any sort of positive influence on the group.”

However, Kirsten has not ruled out a return to coaching Pakistan but stressed that it would have to be under significantly different conditions.

“If I got invited back to Pakistan tomorrow, I would go,” Kirsten stated. “But I would want to go for the players, and I would want to go under the right circumstances.”

He underlined the importance of cricketing matters being handled by professionals with relevant experience and criticised the external influences that impacted the team environment during his tenure.

“Cricket teams need to be run by cricket people,” he said. “When that’s not happening, and when there’s a lot of noise from the outside — 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.”

Kirsten, though, spoke highly of the Pakistani players he worked with. “I love the Pakistan players, they’re great guys,” he said. “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.”

He reiterated that success is achievable with the right setup.

“When we get into that environment, there are generally certain things you do to help a team be the best 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," Kirsten said.