KARACHI: Former South African cricketer and legendary coach Gary Kirsten on Saturday cited external “interference” as the reason for his early exit as Pakistan’s head coach.
During an interview with TalkSPORT Cricket, Kirsten said he was dealing with significant interference during his tenure as Pakistan head coach, and the “constant noise from outside” made it difficult for him to continue.
He also criticized the handling of coaches in Pakistan cricket, referring to them as the “lowest hanging fruit” when the team underperforms.
“The thing that surprised me more than anything was the level of interference. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that level before. Did it surprise me? I don’t know, but it was remarkable,” Kirsten said.
“When there’s this constant noise from outside, it’s very difficult for a coach to come in and create a way for you to work with the players. It was difficult, with this constant noise from outside and a lot of punitive measures around poor performance and things like that.
“As a coach, you’re the low hanging fruit when the team isn’t going well, so let’s get rid of the coach or put a restriction on the coach because that’s the easiest thing to do when teams are performing, and that’s negative in my view. Then why hire a coach?”
However, Kirsten insisted that she “thoroughly enjoyed” working with the Pakistani players despite the language barrier, stressing that all professional cricketers are great people across cultures.
“I really enjoyed working with the players. I think professional cricketers are the best people in any culture. We are cricket people. We love working together,” Kirsten continued.
“We speak the same, despite the language barrier, when you talk cricket, you understand what we are saying to each other. So I really enjoyed working with the players.”
For those who don’t know, Kirsten took over as Pakistan’s white-ball coach in April 2024, but stepped down from the post for six months, shortly after the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced that it would exclude the squads for the ODI and T20I tours to Australia and Zimbabwe from the selection process.