PakPassion member @The Bald Eagle analyses the selection of new separate Head Coaches for Pakistan, touching upon the challenges, opportunities and changes that may ensue after the selection of Gary Kirstein and Jason Gillespie as Pakistan's new white and red ball coaches respectively. 

By The PakPassion Staff Member (29 April, 2024)

It's never easy to change the fortunes of Pakistan Cricket, So can Gary Kirsten and Jason Gillespie steer the ride well inside Pakistan's well of death?

Introduction:
After a long wait, finally Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has announced the name of new Head Coaches of Pakistan and interestingly for the first time in their history they have opted for separate coaches for the separate formats. Gary Kirsten has been appointed as the Head Coach in the white ball format while Jason Gillespie has been entrusted with this role in the red ball format.

In search of gold, we lost diamonds. This is a common phrase that Pakistan Cricket Team (PCT) fans employ to describe the erroneous decisions of the PCB. But fortunately enough, the case is quite the opposite this time, as in search of novice coaches like Shane Watson and Darren Sammy, PCB ended up stumbling upon the veterans of the game like Gary Kirsten and Jason Gillespie. No disgrace to Sammy and Watson, but they are still green in the domain of coaching in comparison to guys like Kirsten and Gillespie. So finally, Pakistan now has world-class coaches along with world-class players, but the big question is will all this translate into world class results and trophies too? If not, then certainly this episode will go down in the history of PCT as one of the darkest chapters.

The gamble of separate coaches – A novel, rewarding and tricky strategy:

The case of a single coach looks more plausible but isn’t necessarily a success recipe. England although had ambivalent results under this dual coach arrangement but this approach is yet to make a mark for itself in the realm of cricket.

So the separate coach paradigm may work well for Pakistan too but for that there would be a need of a seasoned assistant coach to act as a bridge between the separate format coaches. As such individual not only could keep an eye on players development across the formats but also could assist the respective format coaches to execute their plans well for the betterment of team. Also in case of separate coaches, the goals are few and well defined. Another merit of this approach is that instead of burying one failures through good performances in other formats, a coach can be held squarely accountable for his performance in the respective format.

Gary Kirsten – The game changer or game spoiler:

MS Dhoni once described Gary Kirsten as, “the best thing that could have happened to Indian cricket” and indeed till date he is the only foreign coach under whom India has won an ODI World Cup. Under his tutelage, Hobart Hurricanes reached the final in his first year as coach for them. Also he played a pivotal role in helping Gujrat Titans (GT) win their maiden IPL title in 2022. So no doubt Kirsten is a world class white ball coach with some remarkable achievements. But the question is can he be the game changer for the PCT too? It is too difficult to predict precisely how the things will unfold for him in PCT but one thing that make us super optimistic is his exceptional coaching profile and the fact that after Dav Whatmore, he is only the second foreign world cup winning coach to manage the Pakistan team so far. But being a game changer for many teams, he once emerged as a game spoiler too and that was for RCB who finished at 6th place a year before him but under him touched the rock bottom in the IPL season 2019. So the bottom line is we don’t need to be ultra optimistic here.

Some big challenges for the Kirsten and Gillespie duo:

According to former Pakistan head coach Mickey Arthur, the chief reason behind the underwhelming performances by players is their sense of insecurity as he once stated:

“When there’s security within the environment, Pakistan is very good. When there’s that insecurity, players start playing for themselves”

So for being successful at PCT, the Kirsten-Gillespie duo need to deal well with this dilemma. Another big test that await them would be to deal amicably with players to sort out all the issues that engender factionism within the Pakistan team. For this they may had to entrust different roles to different players from time to time in order to save them from the menace of infighting. And one of the constant headache for the Kirsten-Gillespie duo would be to get along with the PCB ie one of the most politicized board in the cricketing world.

But the big thing is that it is not a SENA nation that they are going to coach but it is team Pakistan where the board is full of intriguing characters and politics is rampant within the dressing room. Where a head coach and captain gets removed after a single series. Where the chairman is a political appointee and where new portfolios are created just to confer favors upon the protégés.

Some notable traits from Kirsten’s playbook:

So what is the reason that has made Kirsten so successful? There are a number of them but to build strong rapports and bonds with the players individually is one of them. Also during his coaching career, Kirsten has always picked a livewire and in-form player as a captain for his side. So during his stint at PCT Kirsten may continue with Babar but a dip in form may coerce him to change the captain for the side.

Another good thing about Kirsten is his young talent promoting philosophy. During his stint with team India he promoted guys like Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina and Ravichandran Ashwin who turned out to be great players. Also Kristen’s flair to transform the mental toughness of players to thrive well in high-pressure situations is also something worth mentioning. In words of Sehwag, Kirsten made us play every game a year before the World Cup 2011 as a knock out encounter. So to emulate the same with team Pakistan will be crucial to end Pakistan’s 7 years long trophy drought. Another distinct trait of Kirsten is his robust rotation of players policy which also enable him to utilize well his trial and test model ie the chief reason behind his enormous success over the years. A good thing about this commendable strategy is that it allows a coach to try a large pool of players and thus ensuring merit and proper talent appreciation within a side. But a downside to Kirsten’s late appointment is that he does not have enough time at his disposal to employ his above playbook tactics. As T20 WC 2024 is nearly a month away while ICC Champions Trophy 2025 is just 10 months away from now.

Another encouraging news for PCT is Gary Kirsten’s conflict management abilities. For those who don’t know in the early 2010s, Indian team was the epicenter of internal intrigues where the two groups led by Virendar Sehwag and M.S Dhoni were vying for captaincy and other key positions within the team for their respective supporters. Kirsten at that stage acted sensibly and managed the players ego magnificently well to deter such internal team politics from engendering any negative ripple effect over the strong team performances.

Well for Pakistan, he definitely would have to play the same positive role as many rumors are rife regarding the grouping within the PCT since Shaheen Afridi’s abrupt removal from the T20 captaincy which even Mohsin Naqvi has partially acknowledged.

Pakistan’s dismal woes in red ball format and the peculiar selection of Jason Gillespie:

 The big and pertinent question here is why not we went for Kirsten here too. Bearing in mind that under his tenure South Africa claimed the no.1 spot in the Test formats. Also it was under his tutelage that Indian team became the Test mace holder in 2009. So why Mr Gillespie was favored over Kirstein here. For those who don’t know, Jason Gillespie is a Test format maverick who not only helped the relegated Yorkshire side to get elevated into the first division of English County in his maiden stint but also managed to bag two county titles for them in the subsequent years while missing out closely on the third one. Also in his five year stint at Yorkshire, Gillespie’s side just lost 7 matches. While Kirstein’s Indian side lost 10 in just a space of two years from 2009-2011. Also recently, Gillespie has served as the head coach for the Australian first class domestic side, South Australia. So Gillespie holds a rich experience in the red ball format.

 Pakistan team, in the last two years, had been utterly pedestrian in the red ball format as they have managed to win only 3 Tests out of their last 15 and that too include victories against minnow sides like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. And even worse is Pakistan’s recent abysmal run at the home turf where they have lost 4 out of their last 6 Tests let alone claiming any success in the SENA nations. So in this time of crisis Pakistan team badly needed an impetus and the selection of red ball maestro Jason Gillespie appears to be a positive step in the right direction for team Green.

The only downside for Gillespie in this role is his lack of coaching experience for a sub-continent side but being part of a world cup winning team, the South Australia can bring with him the Aussie winning mentality and by infusing it successfully into the PCT, he could definitely turn team Pakistan into a formidable Test side in the years to come.

Mission CT 2025 : The litmus test for Gary Kirsten:

 No matter whatever we may suggest, winning the T20 World Cup 2024 is a forgone conclusion now, as Gary Kirsten may hardly join the team a week or two before the T20 World Cup, so the main goal for Kirstein would be to help Pakistan strategically stage a successful defense of its Champions Trophy (CT) crown. In fact, the main accolade for which Kirsten is still known is the ODI World Cup for India at home, a first of his kind at that time. Also bearing in mind that the next year’s CT tournament would be the first major ICC event in Pakistan in more than three decades, it becomes exponentially significant for the team Green.

The dilemma of no early beginnings and the impending disaster:

T20 World Cup 2024 is just a month away, but the tragedy for PCB is that their coaching pick for the white ball format, Gary Kirsten won’t be able to join the team until late May. Kirstein is currently busy with his IPL franchise, Gujrat Titans and there lies the headache for team Pakistan, who will head into the T20 World Cup 2024 with a new coach who will have just two weeks to build a rapport with the players, let alone extract strong performances from them. So here, PCB could do a favor to PCT by letting guys like Azhar Mahmood continue until the T20 World Cup in 2024 and letting Kirsten join the team as a special mentor. This will ease the pressure off Kirsten and would also help team Pakistan continue seamlessly under an existing head coach. But instead of that, they have designated the assistant coach portfolio to Azhar Mahmood under the aegis of Gary Kirsten. For the red ball format, things won’t be that tricky as Pakistan doesn’t have any test series till November this year and Gillespie would possibly join the team before that in July after the termination of his contract with the South Australian side.

Employing the hands off “laissez-faire” approach:

To expect anything good from the Kirsten-Gillespie duo with stings attached would be futile so both of them should be entrusted with great powers to build a team of their choice so they can’t blame the system in case they fail to deliver the desired results.

As we all know, PCB is a board plagued with politics, so the pre-condition for success of any coach would be to have a greater say and input in the selection committee. Also in such process, the coaches need not to ignore the input from players as it has caused havoc in the team before as described below by former chief selector, Shahid Afridi:

“I came in as chief selector for one month. Believe me, there were so many problems. Captain had one choice, the coach has another. Both give me different reports,”

Need of a trickle down and pass the torch approach:

Another peculiar thing with Gary Kristen’s coaching style is that he never sticks with a side for more than 3 years due to his family commitments, even being a South African he choose not to continue with his native side for an extended term. So the main thing is that he may stick around for 3 to 4 years with PCT.

So in that case PCB management needs to do some long term planning as it is highly unlikely that Gary Kirsten may continue beyond a 3 year stint bearing in mind his past track record. So PCB needs to groom his successor along the line rather than leaving it too late for PCT to suffer. Here the newly appointed Assistant Coach, Azhar Mahmood can play a special role by filling the void post Kirsten era thus ensuring a smooth transition phase after Gary Kirsten’s exit. The very fact that current world cup and world Test championship winning head coach, Andrew Mcdonald was himself an assistant coach for 3 years under his predecessor Justin Langer speak volumes on the need of a proper back up coach. So PCB need to learn a thing or two from above example and should appoint such a person as an assistant coach who is part of their long term planning. Currently, Azhar Mahmood has been entrusted with this responsibility and it would be a plausible decision by PCB to let him take the reins from this exceptional duo.

Conclusion:

Gillespie and Kirsten are no journeyman but proper qualified coaches with an acclaimed legacy and a decorated cabinet of trophies and as a PCT coach they would love to add many more such trophies to their collection but for that they must be afforded proper time and liberty to properly execute their plans. Even after that it won’t be a plain sailing for them as PCB’s political nature, PCT’s incessant internal rifts and the ever nagging media won’t spare them one bit even on the slightest of mistake but at the same any title or glory with the team green would grant them a status of a national hero. So it’s a tight rope to tread on for the Gillespie – Kirsten duo with a probability of high reward and risk that could impinge heavily on their legacy as coach.