Former Pakistan head coach Gary Kirsten has said that what surprised him the most during his role was the level of interference from the Pakistan Cricket Board into the matters within the team, which eventually led to his resignation from his job within a few months.
Kirsten stepped down as head coach of Pakistan’s ODI and T20I teams with immediate effect. Appointed on a two-year deal by the PCB in April 2024, he lasted just six months in the role, resigning a week before Pakistan’s ODI series in Australia.
The PCB confirmed that Test coach Jason Gillespie would step in for Kirsten during the Australia tour, overseeing the six white-ball games, but a few months later, the former quit too.
“The thing that surprised me more than anything was the level of interference. I don’t think I have ever seen it at that level before. Did it surprise me? I don’t know, but it was significant,” Kirsten said while speaking to talkSPORT Cricket.
“It is quite difficult for a coach to come and formulate a way that you can work with the players when there is just this constant noise from the outside. It was tough, just this constant noise from the outside and a lot of punitive actions around poor performance and stuff like that,” Kirsten said.
“As a coach, you are the lowest hanging fruit when the team isn’t going well, so let us get rid of the coach or let us put a restriction on the coach because that is the easiest thing to do when the teams are performing, and that is kind of counterproductive in my view,” Kirsten added. (News18)
🇵🇰 "The thing that surprised me was the level of interference."
🏏 "It's quite difficult for a coach to formulate a way of working with the players when there's the constant noise from the outside."
🗣️ Gary Kirsten opens up on his stint as Pakistan's white-ball Head Coach pic.twitter.com/xUDa1wj4Uf
— talkSPORT Cricket (@Cricket_TS) March 20, 2026