LAHORE: Newly appointed Pakistan white-ball coach Gary Kirsten has shared his thoughts on his appointment and plans for the national team’s limited-overs cricket as the 2024 World Cup is just a month away.
Speaking on the Pakistan Cricket Board podcast, Kirsten expressed his excitement and called it a great privilege to coach the national team and be involved in international cricket again after some time.
While Kirsten admitted he hadn’t followed Pakistan’s white-ball cricket closely until the offer, he revealed that he got to know the players through various tournaments.
“Not very closely until I was offered the opportunity to be honest with you. I mean of course I watched a lot of the World Cup last year. I watched bits of short format cricket and then I watched HBL Pakistan.” The Super League, which is really great in South Africa, is in the evening, so we can come back from work and turn on the TV and there is HBL PSL,” he said.
You are an international cricket lover, you know the Pakistani players very well because they are everywhere and they are great to watch.” to play cricket,” he added.
Kirsten shared his excitement about working with famous Pakistani players including Babar Azam and Shaheen Afridi.
Gary Kirsten spoke fondly of his experiences in Pakistan.
The 56-year-old appreciates Azhar Mahmood’s contribution as an assistant coach and acknowledges Mahmood’s deep understanding of the players and the cricket environment.
“Absolutely, he’s been an incredible help, he definitely knows the players better than I do. We’ll work closely together and I think we have a decent relationship. I’ve played a lot of cricket against Azhar. “We were on opposite sides of the cricket field but now we’re in the same team so I’m kind of looking forward to that trip with him,” Gary said.
That’s the job of the coaches. We’ll do everything we can to make sure we try to do that,” he added.
The former South African cricketer stresses the importance of understanding Pakistan’s current position and setting realistic targets for the team’s performance at ICC events, including two T20 World Cups and one Champions Trophy in the next few years.
“Well, my designation is white-ball coach. I think it’s important for me to understand where the team is and where we want to go – whether it’s winning World Cup events, which it’s not easy by the way, some people often think you just stand up and win the championship,” said Gary.
“But if you win one of these three ICC Events, it will be an amazing achievement in itself, whether it’s an upcoming event or two years from now. My job is to make the team perform as well as it can,” he added. it’s that simple and if the team performs at its best we will always have a great chance of winning the trophy but if the team doesn’t perform at its best we won’t and that would be the same with any team,” he concluded.
