A day after Pakistan announced their new white-ball captain in Mohammad Rizwan, the Men in Green is likely to suffer a huge blow as men’s cricket head coach Gary Kirsten is rumoured to be stepping down from his position. Kirsten, who won the 2011 World Cup with India, was associated with the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Gujarat Titans earlier in the year when Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) appointed him.
Although there hasn’t been any official communication from the PCB, a Cricbuzz report stated that all is not well between the South African and the cricket board. It also states that Kirsten will not be travelling with the team for their tours of Australia and Zimbabwe in November and December. For the unknown, Kirsten is Pakistan head coach for ODI and T20Is teams.
Based on the report, Kirsten, the players and the PCB weren’t on the same page regarding some of the decisions related to the national team. Kirsten wanted David Reid as High Performance coach but PCB didn’t not like his suggestion, which eventually led to differences.
How did Pakistan fare under Kirsten?
As far as his performance is concerned, Pakistan didn’t get much success under Kirsten. He started with a bilateral series loss to England before making a group stage exit from the T20 World Cup 2024 in USA and Barbados.
If rumours are to be believed, Test team head coach Jason Gillespie could take over the white-ball teams on an interim basis until a new coach is appointed.
With the ICC Champions Trophy less than four months away, the PCB face an uphill task of finding the right man for the job. The name of former pacer Aaqib Javed has cropped up to replace Kirsten.
The 56-year-old former South Africa top-order batter played 101 Tests and 185 ODIs from 1993-2004 in which he accumulated a total of 14,087 runs with 34 centuries. He was a member of the South Africa side that won the ICC Knock-Out Trophy 1998 (now known as ICC Champions Trophy); played in three ICC Men’s Cricket World Cups from 1996 to 2003.
He also coached South Africa men’s cricket team from 2011-2013 and inspired them to No.1 position on the ICC Test Team Rankings.
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