On quitting Pakistan job
\n Johannesburg
\nFormer South African cricketer and renowned coach Gary Kirsten has broken his silence on the internal turmoil that led to his abrupt resignation as Pakistan\u2019s white-ball head coach, admitting he \u201crealised quite quickly\u201d he would have little influence in the role.
\nIn a candid conversation on the Wisden Cricket Patreon podcast, Kirsten laid bare the frustrations that defined his brief stint with the national side, emphasising that Pakistan\u2019s cricketing environment lacked the structure and autonomy needed for coaching success.
\n\u201cCricket teams need to be run by cricket people,\u201d Kirsten said. \u201cOnce I was taken off selection and asked to take a team I hadn\u2019t helped shape, it became very difficult to have any sort of positive influence.\u201d
\nKirsten was appointed Pakistan\u2019s white-ball coach in April 2024 alongside Jason Gillespie, who took charge of the Test side. Their appointments were widely welcomed as part of a new direction under the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). But what followed was anything but stable.
\nBy October \u2014 barely a day after the squads for Pakistan\u2019s ODI and T20I tours of Australia and Zimbabwe were announced \u2014 Kirsten had submitted his resignation. At the time, murmurs of a growing power rift between the coaching staff and the PCB had already begun surfacing.
\nKirsten and Gillespie were notably left out of the five-member selection committee that picked squads for the latter stages of England\u2019s Test series and the subsequent white-ball fixtures. The exclusion was seen as a clear indication of waning authority, leaving the foreign coaching duo increasingly marginalised in cricketing decisions.
\n\u201cIt was a tumultuous few months,\u201d Kirsten reflected. \u201c I realised quite quickly I wasn\u2019t going to have much of an influence. When there\u2019s a lot of outside noise \u2014 very influential noise \u2014 it becomes impossible to lead a team in the right direction.\u201d
\nWhile Kirsten stepped away in October, Gillespie followed soon after, resigning ahead of the South Africa Test series in December. He later revealed that the PCB\u2019s decision to part ways with high-performance coach Tim Nielsen \u2014 his former Australian colleague \u2014 influenced his own departure. \u201cIt left a sour taste,\u201d Gillespie said.
\nDespite the turbulence, Kirsten maintains a deep fondness for the players he briefly worked with and has not ruled out a return \u2014 but only under more professional, autonomous conditions.
\n\u201cIf I got invited back to Pakistan tomorrow, I would go \u2014 but I\u2019d want to go for the players, and under the right circumstances,\u201d he said. \u201cI love the Pakistan players. They\u2019re great guys. More than any other team, they feel the pressure of performance massively. When they lose, it\u2019s hectic \u2014 and they feel that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On quitting Pakistan job Johannesburg Former South African cricketer and renowned coach Gary Kirsten has broken his silence on the internal turmoil that led to his abrupt resignation as Pakistan\u2019s white-ball head coach, admitting he \u201crealised quite quickly\u201d he would have little influence in the role. In a candid conversation on the Wisden Cricket Patreon […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":484523,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-484496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\n