Former Pakistan white-ball head coach Gary Kirsten has delivered a scathing critique of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), describing a toxic work culture marked by systemic interference and a lack of professional respect. Talking moons after his sudden resignationThe World Cup-winning coach suggested that the environment under chairman Mohsin Naqvi made it virtually impossible to achieve sustained success.
After a few days, Kirsten revealed her difficult internship in Pakistan takes over as head coach of Sri Lanka. In a candid interview with talkSPORT Cricket, he detailed the frustrations that led him to step down in October 2024, just six months into his tenure and without overseeing a single ODI.
Read the full article
The coach of the World Cup winner did not spare the noise that permeated the dressing room.
“The thing that surprised me probably more than anything else was the level of interference. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it at that level. Was it surprising? I don’t know, but it was significant,” Kirsten said.
The former South African opener highlighted how the coaching staff were often treated as convenient scapegoats for wider administrative failures and pointed to the board’s tendency to respond to losses with restrictions rather than support.
“It’s quite difficult for a coach to come in and formulate a way to work with players when there’s just this constant noise from outside. It was difficult and there was a lot of offense around poor performance and things like that,” he added.
“As a coach, you’re the lowest hanging fruit when the team isn’t doing well, so ‘let’s get rid of the coach’ or ‘let’s put a cap on the coach’ because that’s the easiest thing to do when the team isn’t performing – and that’s counterproductive in my view. So why hire a coach?”
WHY KIRSTEN ENDED UP AS A PAK COACH
Kirsten’s departure was the culmination of a power struggle that intensified following Pakistan’s early exit from the 2024 FIFA World Cup T20. While he initially attempted to overhaul the team’s fitness and mental attitude, he quickly found his authority eroded. The defining moment came when the PCB took away the head coach’s voting rights in the selection committee. The shift, overseen by a panel appointed by Naqvi, left Kirsten with little influence over the selection of the team for the Australian tour or the appointment of Mohammad Rizwan as captain.
Reports from his time with the team pointed to a deep rift. After the T20 World Cup defeat to India, Kirsten reportedly told the team that there was no unity, a sentiment that appeared to have spread to the boardroom in Lahore.
By the time he resigned, the relationship between professional coaching and the political administrative wing had become unsustainable.
Jason Gillespie’s departure in December 2024 followed a remarkably similar and, by some accounts, humiliating pattern. Despite leading Pakistan to a historic home Test series win against England, Gillespie was increasingly sidelined by the Naqvi-led administration. The final straw came when the PCB fired high-performing coach Tim Nielsen without prior communication with him.
– The end
Issued by:
Akshay Ramesh
Published on:
21 March 2026 11:53 IST
