Gary Kirsten, the former South Africa batsman who has been appointed as Pakistan’s white-ball head coach in April 2024 after four years of coaching the Indian national team, has stepped down from his position.
As reported by ESPNCricinfo on Monday (October 28), a breach occurred between the Kirsten and Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) since the time the board resolved to take away selection powers from him and Test head coach Jason Gillespie. It was reported that ‘Kirsten was a bit miffed with the going ons’
In the past, Cricket buzz had similarly disclosed that it was most probable that the 56-year old South African who had 101 tests played and 185 ODIs in his 11 years career would stop being head coach of the Men in Green in the ODIs and T20s.
Per the website, there are substantive disagreements between Kirsten and the Pakistan players. Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has also contributed to the situation because it denied Kirsten’s plea to bring in David Reid as a high-performance coach. Rather, the PCB offered other names who Jehan did not endorse.
Kirsten arrived for the Pakistani camp in May after completing the IPL season with the Gujarat Titans. During that period, the Men in Green were set to travel to the USA to participate in the 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. However, it was an eventful West Indies tournament for the 2009 champions as they failed to make it past the group stages for the first time.
With Kirsten resigning as Pakistan’s head coach six months after his appointment and loving Angela’s ashes ending, Test head coach Jason Gillespie or former Pakistani fast bowler Aqib Javed, who has been instrumental in Pakistan’s 2-1 Test series victory over England, will most likely be the new head of white-ball teams.
In the lead-up to the ICC Champions Trophy, set to commence from February 19 to March 9 in three different locations across Pakistan, a number of white-ball series are in Pakistan’s schedule for the next few months.
Pakistan is also quite busy as they play other restricted-overs cricket series quite soon after this Australia tour. First, they caption the invite for Zimbabwe, where a full three ODIs and three T20s will take place. After this series, they embarked on another tour to South Africa, also for all formats, in December 2024-January 2025. Pakistan will also engage in a tri-series on home soil along with New Zealand and South Africa right before the eight-nation ICC tournament busies them in February next year.
