The Pakistan Cricket Board has appointed former India coach and the World Cup-winning Gary Kirsten as Pakistan's head coach for ODIs and T20Is, while former Australia fast bowler Jason Gillespie has been named as the national team's Test head coach. Along with them, ex-Pakistan all-rounder Azhar Mahmood has been appointed as the assistant coach of the Men In Green across formats. (More Cricket News)
"The appointment of (Gary) Kirsten and (Jason) Gillispie who are high-profile coaches shows how much value is given to the Pakistan cricket team and how much potential foreign coaches see in our players," PCB chief Mohsin Naqvi said at a press conference. "We want to give the team the best facilities and that is why we have gone for Kirsten and Gillispie," he added.
Kirsten is expected to take over ahead of Pakistan's tour of England from May 22, which will include four T20Is, and from there the team will travel for the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 in June.
Pakistan have been looking for a full-time head coach since the end of the 2023 ODI World Cup, where they could not enter the knockout stages.
After their disastrous campaign in the marquee ICC event held in India, Pakistan had sacked the full set of coaching staff – head coach Grant Bradburn, team director Mickey Arthur, bowling coach Morne Morkel and batting coach Andrew Puttick.
Star batter Babar Azam was also sacked from captaincy after the World Cup, with Pakistan going with speedster Shaheen Shah Afridi as their T20I leader and Shan Masood doing that duty in Tests.
Furthermore, Pakistan had turned to former cricketer Muhammad Hafeez as the team director during their tour to Australia. But Hafeez lost the job after Pakistan were vanquished 0-3 in the Test series and 1-4 in the T20Is. While Masood was retained as captain, Afridi was relieved from leadership and Babar reinstated in the last week of March 2024.
Pakistan could not find a full-time head coach despite approaching prominent names like Matthew Hayden and Shane Watson.
They have finally zeroed in on Kirsten, who had mentored India to the 2011 World Cup title, and Gillespie, who has earlier coached English county side Sussex.
Naqvi explained why PCB opted for foreign names for the coaching role. "We have maintained a balance for this. There's a lot of talent in our country. But we're not that far ahead in medical sciences which is why there are some fitness issues in our team.
"So, closing our options to get the best options from outside our country may not get us the best results for us," said Naqvi.
(With PTI inputs)
