The Mohsin Naqvi-led Pakistan Cricket Board finds itself in the spotlight for the wrong reasons yet again. After a turbulent couple of months in which it was involved in all sorts of drama revolving around the T20 World Cup, the PCB finds itself accused of excessive interference by Gary Kirsten, whose short stint with the Pakistan men’s cricket team as their limited-overs head coach had ended abruptly in 2024.
Kirsten, who had coached India to victory in the 2011 ICC World Cup and has now taken charge of the Sri Lankan cricket team following their disappointing T20 World Cup campaign, added that it was the Naqvi-led board’s behaviour that had forced his early exit.
“The thing that surprised me more than anything was the level of interference. I don’t think I have ever seen it at that level before. Did it surprise me? I don’t know, but it was significant,” Kirsten told talkSPORT Cricket.
“It is quite difficult for a coach to come and formulate a way that you can work with the players when there is just this constant noise from the outside. It was tough, just this constant noise from the outside and a lot of punitive actions around poor performance and stuff like that,” he continued.
The 58-year-old added that coaches often are the first in the firing line when things don’t go according to plan, describing them as the “lowest hanging fruit” from the board’s perspective.
“As a coach, you are the lowest hanging fruit when the team isn’t going well, so let us get rid of the coach or let us put a restriction on the coach because that is the easiest thing to do when the teams are performing and that is kind of counterproductive in my view,” he added.
The former South African opening batter had been appointed Pakistan’s limited-overs coach in April 2024 on a two-year contract, only to put in his papers just six months later in October, with the team having suffered an embarrassing first-round exit at the T20 World Cup along the way.
