Pakistan cricket descended into family turmoil when Kirsten resigned as head coach of Pakistan’s ODI and T20I teams on Monday. He had been on a two-year contract for six months and left on the eve of Pakistan’s white-ball tour of Australia.
Kirsten, who led India’s 2011 World Cup triumph, leaves office without having coached Pakistan in a single ODI.
Even by PCB standards, the public struggles have been complicated and threaten to deter would-be international coaches. Leading candidates Shane Watson and Darren Sammy had previously been sounded out earlier this year before rejecting offers to coach the national team.
“When you are looking for international coaches, with the kind of reaction you are likely to get with Gary Kirsten resigning… it will not be an easy and simple job for Pakistan to hire international talent,” Ramiz told reporters in a media interaction. before the Australian tour.
“What you have to do is make sure that once you get involved and involve someone, you have to give them clarity on the role.
“I don’t know if that clarity was given to him by Gary Kirsten or how he wanted to take Pakistan to this one-day phase, what he wanted to achieve. I’m not aware of that.
“It’s not great news [Kirsten’s departure] because Pakistan needed an experienced hand. From a distance it doesn’t look very good right before a tour.”
A rift had developed between Kirsten and Jason Gillespie, Pakistan’s new Test coach, and the PCB since the board decided to strip them of selection powers after Pakistan’s first Test loss against England.
Pak Gazette understands that Gillespie, who will take Kirsten’s place on the tour of Australia, has also been unimpressed by the recent changes. A new selection panel was formed, a third in three months, and, in an unusual development, it included referee Aleem Dar.
“I don’t know if a referee is a coach, so the jury is still out,” Ramiz said. “I still believe that a leader has an important role in cricket. You can’t run cricket from the sidelines. The leader needs to be accountable and the only way to make him accountable is to give him some powers.”
Pakistan will arrive in Australia not only with a new white-ball coach in Gillespie, but also with Mohammad Rizwan taking the reins of captaincy following the recent resignation of Babar Azam.
It is shaping up to be a tough start for Rizwan, who will lead a relatively inexperienced team for a trio of ODIs and T20Is against Australia.
“He has his chance and what he needs to do is stamp his authority and maybe get the players he wants,” Ramiz said of Rizwan. “At the moment, there is a bit of a mix-up at the moment when the selection committee is nominating the playing XI. I’m not too sure this happens anywhere else in the world.
“I just hope Rizwan gets his eleven that he feels comfortable with.”
After being widely criticized for antagonizing Pakistan Test captain Shan Masood during a television interview after the England series, Ramiz called for “calm and calm” within Pakistan cricket.
“I think it is important that all concerned understand the value of an uncontroversial start to what appears to be an extremely heavy schedule,” he said.
“I just hope things are getting better. I think Pakistan were clearly in desperate mode against England, and fortunately the series was won. I just hope they carry on this momentum even though it is a different format.
“But it is [Pakistan cricket] “It is a difficult terrain, it is a difficult area to govern because things happen very quickly.”
Tristan Lavalette is a journalist based in Perth.
