Richard Pybus appointed as head coach of Afghanistan

England-born Richard Pybus has been appointed as the head coach of the Afghanistan cricket team, replacing Jonathan Trott following the team’s exit from the ongoing T20 World Cup.

Pybus, who has enjoyed a distinguished international coaching career, will take charge ahead of next month’s white-ball series against Sri Lanka in the UAE.

“The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) is pleased to announce the appointment of Richard Pybus as the Head Coach of the Afghanistan National Team,” ACB said in a statement on Tuesday (February 24, 2026).

“He will join AfghanAtalan ahead of the upcoming white-ball series against Sri Lanka in March.”

While his playing career was derailed due to a spate of injuries, Pybus achieved success as a coach. He is a three-time World Cup-winning head coach and director of cricket and brings in a wealth of elite-level experience and a proven record of building high-performance systems.

He previously served as head coach, director of cricket and head of high performance for the West Indies from 2013 to 2019.

During that period, he oversaw the high-performance structure that culminated in a historic treble in 2016, when the West Indies men’s, women’s and Under-19 teams all won ICC World Cup titles in the same calendar year.

Pybus earlier guided Pakistan to the final of the 1999 ICC Cricket World Cup, where they finished runners-up to Australia. He has also held a senior leadership role with Bangladesh cricket in 2013.

At domestic level, he worked in South African domestic and franchise cricket, where teams under his guidance secured nine championship titles. Additionally, he was named South African Cricket Coach of the Year twice.

He has also played a significant role in the development of individual players, including Pakistan’s Mohammad Rizwan and South Africa’s Faf Du Plessis. He also worked with Dale Steyn and helped him become one of the greatest bowlers in the history of cricket.

Beong coaching, Pybus received a Doctorate in Professional Practice from Middlesex University in London in recognition of his research on the principles behind the ‘Optimal Performance System’ in 2022.

He also holds a postgraduate degree from Greenwich University in London and a BA Hons degree from Portsmouth University in the UK.

He is a Level Four CSA Certified Coach and has an Executive Coaching Certificate from the Neuroleadership Institute. He is also a Certified Performance Coach and a Master’s Level NLP Practitioner.