3 minutes of readingUpdated: Mar 21, 2026 11:57 pm IST
After taking charge of the Sri Lanka cricket team, Gary Kirsten opened up about his brief stint at the helm of the Pakistan cricket team. He noted that there was a lot of “interference” in his five-month role on the Pakistan Cricket Board, although he did not reveal by whom. He also said reports that the PCB fined Pakistan cricketers for failing to reach the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup were not surprising.
“I’m not particularly surprised (by reports of fines on Pakistan players). For me, it’s just sad. I mean, those players are giving everything and I have to get to know them well. You know, all of them. So I have an emotional connection with a lot of those guys. I saw them in Colombo and it was great to connect with them again. And they’re good guys. They want to do well for their country. So it’s never nice to see that,” Kirsten said in an interview with the BBC.
Talking about her bond with cricketers as a coach, Kirsten said: “At the end of the day, I enjoy working with cricketers. And if you have cricketers, whether they’re from England, the West Indies, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, they’re cricketers, they’re professionals. We speak the same language. We connect on similar things and we’re professionals in that space. And you know, I enjoyed the Pakistani players, I did. I thought they were dedicated to the game.”
When Kirsten was asked how she remembered her brief stint in Pakistan, she replied: “It was only five months, six T20 games in total. So, pretty incidental in terms of experience.”
“As I’ve traveled around the world (this is now my fourth international job), you can experience different levels of interference. And each country has a slightly different way of looking at it. And I think that was the real challenge there, the level of interference can become quite intimidating and it can also involve quite a bit. And sometimes, when you don’t have, or have very little, influence as a coach, then what’s the point of doing it? I mean, I only do this job because I want to help a group of people be the best they can be. I’ve been a professional in the cricket, you know, since I was 20. Now I’m 58. That’s 38 years in the game. Understanding that you can really add some value there, wherever you go, is really important to me and if that is lost and you have no influence then I don’t see the point,” Kirsten said.