Related Link : Gary Kirsten
Former South African prolific opening batsman Gary Kirsten has signed the BCCI Contract for being India’s Coach for two years starting from March 1, 2008. The 40-year-old signed up his contract after getting clarifications from the BCCI relating to rumours about some of the senior players’ concerns over his appointment for the role.
Although Kirsten’s duties officially start from the 1st of March due to his prior commitments, he is expected to fly to India to meet the squad that is going to tour Australia. He is also supposed to be with the Indian Team during the third and the fourth Tests which are after mid January. Kirsten will act as a consultant rather than a Coach for those two Tests.
Gary Kirsten’s contract is for a period of two years. He has succeeded Former Australian Captain – Greg Chappell, who had a rough time in his stint with the Indian team both on and off the field. Under his stint, India failed to even qualify for the Super Eights of the World Cup after losing to minnows Bangladesh. Ever since Chappell’s resignation which was way back in April, the Indian Team has been without a Coach. They were Cricket Managers appointed in the form of Ravi Shastri and Lalchand Rajput along with bowling and fielding Coaches in Venkatesh Prasad and Robin Singh respectively. Without a Coach, the Indian Team has remarkably won the inaugural T20 World Championship, the Test Series in England and the recently concluded One Day Series against Pakistan which has put doubts about the actual necessity of having a Coach for a National Side.
Gary Kirsten is a hugely experienced cricketer having played 101 Tests and 185 ODIs in a career that had spanned between 1993 and 2004. The left hander wasn’t an elegant strokemaker but one that would just put up a stubborn fight for his wicket in his efficient style. He was successful scoring over 7000 Test runs at a superb average of 45.27 with 21 hundreds. In ODIs too, he has nearly 7000 runs at an average of over 40.00. His highest ODI score is 188* which is a record. Gary Kirsten after retiring from the International Scene became the batting consultant of the Mercedes Warriors (South African first class team) in 2006. Interestingly Kirsten hasn’t been a Coach of any first class side and all he has done is setting up a Coaching Academy in Cape Town. It remains to be seen if the BCCI has made the right choice atleast this time around.