Gary Kirsten has resigned from his role as limited overs coach for Pakistan. He was only appointed last April and signed a two year contract. The core reason is his deteriorated relationship with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). The main reason for the deterioration is the lack of selection power.
The PCB recently stripped the coach and the captain of the selection of the team. That responsibility now rests on a committee. Pakistan are set to tour Australia and there was a delay in the announcements of the ODI and T20 squads due to ongoing discussions between the board. Part of this included Kirsten voicing his opinion that he have some input. However, that opinion was met with deaf ears.
It's due to the lack of selection power that both Jason Gillespie (Test coach) and Kirsten have felt sidelined by the board. After Pakistan lost the first Test against England, a new selection committe was selected - a third in three months. The new commitee consisted of: Aaqib Javed; Aleem Dar; Azhar Ali; Asad Shafiq and Hassan Cheema. The coaches and captain were taken off completely.
Gary Kirsten leaves without coaching the side in an ODI. This format of the game is probably what Kirsten is best known for. Back in 2011, he led India to a World Cup. This was India's first World Cup win in 28 years.
Kirsten's first major tournament was the T20 World Cup in the USA, an inauspicious beginning to his coaching stint. Defeats against USA and India led to Pakistan's earliest elimination from a T20 World Cup; with the side knocked out in the first round after three games. Babar Azam quit as white-ball captain for the second time a few months later.
Former PCB chairman, Ramiz Raja, has said that he believes that Kirsten's early exit can deter other top coaches from entering into the role. He said, "When you search for international coaches, with the kind of backlash that you will probably get from Gary Kirsten's resignation...it's not going to be an easy, straightforward job for Pakistan to hire international talent. What you need to do is to make sure that once you involve and engage somebody, you've got to give them clarity regarding the role.
"I don't know whether that clarity was given to Gary Kirsten or how he wanted to get Pakistan into this one-day phase, what he wanted to achieve. I'm not privy to that. It's not great news [Kirsten's departure] because Pakistan needed an experienced hand. From a distance, it doesn't look great just before a tour."
Raja was also puzzled by the selection of Aleem Dar, a former umpire, to be part of the committee. "I don't know about an umpire being a selector, so the jury is still out," Raja said. "I still believe there's a strong role for a leader in cricket. You can't run cricket from the sidelines. The leader has to be made accountable and the only way to make him accountable is to give him some powers."
Former England player, Kevin Pietersen, was left unimpressed by the PCB following Kirsten's departure. He wrote on his X account, "How can Pakistan Cricket lose Gary Kirsten’s with his resumè in coaching? One step forward the last few weeks and two steps back today! Stop doing it to yourselves. Too much talent to keep doing this kind of stuff!"
Mohammad Hafeez, a former Pakistan captain, wrote on X, "Total Incompetence #Chaos."
To me, this news sounds like just another day at the office in Pakistan. The "fun" seems to never end. I suppose the solution has come and gone. They should've given Kirsten some selection power. When a world class coach demands something, you should adhere to it. You can't go rogue with these type of coaches. To avoid a repeat situation, the PCB should give the next coach some form of selection power.