Gary Kirsten has resigned as head coach of Pakistan’s ODI and T20I teams with immediate effect. Kirsten, who was appointed by the PCB on a two-year contract in April 2024, lasted just under six months in the role and has quit just under a week before Pakistan’s ODI series begins in Australia.
*PCB announced that Test coach Jason Gillespie will fill Kirsten’s role on the tour to Australia for the six white-ball matches.
A rift had developed between Pakistan’s newly appointed coaches, Kirsten and Gillespie, and the PCB since the board decided to strip them of selection powers, with that authority reserved solely to a selection committee they would no longer be part of. Gillespie had done little to hide his surprise at the events in the build-up to the third Test in Rawalpindi against England, saying he was now just a “match-day analyst” and that “that’s not what I signed up for. .”
Kirsten did not make a public statement, but was understood to be disappointed by the latest development. Pakinomist has learned that part of the delay in announcing a squad and the new limited-overs captain was due to animated discussions within the board, with Kirsten keen to have his input taken into account. But in the end, when new captain Mohammad Rizwan was announced at a press conference in Lahore, chairman Mohsin Naqvi was flanked only by Aaqib Javed, a member of the new selection committee, and new captain and vice-captain Salman Agha. Kirsten wasn’t even in the country at the time.
The coaches have felt sidelined by the increasing influence of the current selection committee. After Pakistan lost the first Test against England, a new selection panel – a third in three months – was announced. Aaqib, Aleem Dar, Azhar Ali, Asad Shafiq and Hassan Cheema were on it while the coaches and captain were taken off. Dar was regarded as the original architect of the idea behind the preparation of a recycled surface for the second Test in Multan – which Pakistan went on to win – while Aaqib became the public face of the overhaul. It even prompted new white-ball captain Rizwan at one point to remark during the Test that Pakistan were now playing “Aaqib ball”.
Kirsten’s departure and the speed with which things have resolved is a little less than stellar, even for Pakistan cricket. It means, firstly, that Kirsten leaves his role without having coached Pakistan in a single ODI, the format in which he achieved his greatest coaching success. Pakistan spent the best part of three months in search of what Naqvi called “the best in class” coaches for the team, with several high-profile candidates including Shane Watson and Daren Sammy being floated. Ultimately they settled on Kirsten, who in 2011 led India to a first ODI World Cup title in 28 years, for the white-ball format, with Naqvi saying it was a “remarkable opportunity for our players to gain insight from these experienced professionals”.
Kirsten’s first major tournament was the T20 World Cup in the USA, an inauspicious start to his coaching tenure. Defeats against USA and India led to Pakistan’s earliest elimination from a T20 World Cup, with the team knocked out in the first round after three matches. Babar Azam retired as white-ball captain for the second time a few months later. But it was believed at the time that Kirsten needed time to get her feet under the table and develop a side, especially with a home ICC Champions Trophy in early 2025, the first ICC event in Pakistan for nearly three decades.
*0655 GMT: Story updated after PCB officially announced Gillespie will train in Australia
