Gary Kirsten’s resignation as Pakistan’s white-ball coach means many things for Pakistan. Number one, they need to hire a new coach as early as the upcoming Zimbabwe tour later next month. Number two, international coaches and supporting staff might be more reluctant than usual to be a part of Pakistan cricket. Even before Kirsten’s resignation, Pakistan’s image as an employer was far from ideal. PCB had to introduce a new form of coaching altogether to get Mickey Arthur to coach the team just last year. Shane Watson and Darren Sammy have already turned down coaching offers from the board. From what it looks either Pakistan will have to find local talents in the coaching role or act uncharacteristic of themselves for a few years to change the general notion of management in Pakistan.
Ramiz Raja, while talking to the media, shared similar views. The cricketer-turned-commentator said ‘it’s not going to be easy’ to search for an experienced coach and endure the ‘backlash’ following the coach’s resignation
“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,” Raja said
It has been reported that the reason Kirsten resigned was his displeasure with the growing influence of the newly formed selection committee comprising Aaqib Javed, Azhar Ali, and Aleem Dar. This was also something Pakistan’s red-ball coach, Jason Gillespie, expressed his frustration about. Ramiz Raja said that this sudden departure does not look good for Pakistan, especially right before two back-to-back tours.
“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.”
It’s been a few months since Aleem Dar retired from his umpiring duties. Adding him to the omnipotent committee has sparked a controversy on its own.
“I don’t know about an umpire being a selector, so the jury is still out,” Ramiz said about Dar’s hiring as a selector.
“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.”
October has been a month of significant transition for Pakistan, which started with Babar resigning as white-ball captain following a new selection committee being formed after the sacking of the older one. The PCB then decided to release core players from the squad, tweak the pitches according to the new all-spin strategy, and announce Mohammad Rizwan as the white-ball captain. Kirsten’s resignation capped it all off in a deserving way.
During the last two Test matches against England, PCB stripped captain Shan Masood and coach Gillespie of any say in the selection of players. Raja, however, hopes that Rizwan as a captain does not have to go through the same.
“He’s got his chance and what he needs to do is to stamp his authority and maybe get the players that he wants. Right now, there’s a little bit of a hodgepodge where the selection committee is nominating the playing XI. I’m not too sure it happens anywhere else in the world. I just hope Rizwan gets his playing XI that he feels comfortable with.”
The Pakistan team, led by Rizwan, will fly to Australia to play a three-match ODI and T20I series, starting Monday.