PCB Chairman Mohsin Naqvi on Wednesday said that South African Gary Kirsten ended his tenure as Pakistan white-ball head coach as he made “some breaches” of his contract with the Board. However, it was widely reported that Kirsten, who guided India to 2011 World Cup triumph, resigned following a rift with the Pakistan Cricket Board after the coaches were stripped of their powers in selection matters. Kirsten has so far not made any comments to give his side of the story. Naqvi said Kirsten had ended the contract with the Board and it was not the other way round.

“He (Kirsten) broke his contract with the PCB and made some breaches. He ended the contract with us,” Naqvi told the media Tuesday night during an informal discussion.

He refused to make any more comments on the matter.

Though the PCB had not given the reason for Kirsten’s sudden resignation, sources have confirmed that it was because he was not involved when the Board announced the squads for the Australia and Zimbabwe tours and the new captain of the white ball format on Sunday.

PCB sources, on their part, claimed that Kirsten had breached some clauses of his contract, notably by not spending enough time in Pakistan and insisting on having a full foreign coaching support staff.

Naqvi said that the PCB had started the process of finding a new head coach of the white ball team and he had already spoken to some 4-5 candidates.

“We will have a new white ball head coach by the end of this month because Jason Gillispie has only agreed to manage the team in Australia for the white ball matches on an interim basis. He is more focussed on his role as red ball head coach,” Naqvi said.

“The team will have a new white ball coach for the Zimbabwe tour.” Insiders say that Aaqib Javed, a senior selector who Naqvi wanted to take over as Kirsten’s replacement, has said he is more interested in working on development of players and grooming of young talent at the National Cricket Academy.

Naqvi also said that the selectors had the authority to decide on whether to pick Fakhar Zaman or not.

Senior player Fakhar did not figure in the Pakistan squads for Australia and Zimbabwe tours as he is facing an inquiry from the PCB for tweeting in support of Babar Azam before the selectors dropped him for the England Tests.

“The issue of the show cause notice will be handled by a special committee of the board while the selectors have authority over selection matters.” Naqvi insisted he never interfered in selection matters nor had ever pushed for the selection of any particular player.

“I don’t interfere in the selectors and coaches work.”

Harbhajan Singh on Gary Kirsten’s resignation as Pakistan coach© Insta | X (Twitter)

File photo of Mohammad Rizwan

Current senior selector Aaqib Javed and former spinner Saqlain Mushtaq are in fray to replace Gary Kirsten as Pakistan’s new white ball coach after the former Proteas batter stepped down due to his differences with country’s cricket board. The PCB, on Monday, officially confirmed that Kirsten had resigned and as an interim arrangement it has asked the red ball coach, Jason Gillespie to manage the team for the white ball series in Australia from November 4. But Gillespie has intimated that he would look at it as a one-off arrangement.

“The problem is both Kirsten and Gillespie were not happy with their sudden demotion in powers with the selectors given powers to call all the shots,” one source said.

He said since Gillespie was in the middle of the England series he reluctantly accepted the changes but has publicly made it clear he is no happy at not being involved in the selection process.

“The situation now is that the PCB has to appoint a new white ball coach given the number of white ball commitments of the national team coming up and leading up to the Champions Trophy early next year,” the source said.

“One option is to let assistant coach Azhar Mahmood continue as interim head coach but Aaqib or Saqlain could also land the job.” Saqlain has remained head coach of the Pakistan team before but was replaced by Mickey Arthur early last year when Najam Sethi was in power in the board.

The source did say they are some other candidates under consideration and the board chairman, Mohsin Naqvi would soon have talks with shortlisted candidates.

The PCB has made no official comment on why Kirsten resigned nor has the former South African player said anything but board insiders say the dispute arose over several issues between Kirsten and the PCB.

“Look we had high hopes from Kirsten when we entered into a two-year contract with him. The idea was he could help the PCB to revolutionize the white ball team,” one source aware of the happenings said.

He said the PCB got the feeling that Kirsten never seemed fully committed to his job.

“He did not have a single camp in Pakistan for any of the white ball teams. He was not present at the white ball camps of the Shaheens throughout the summer. And it all culminated with him missing the majority of the Champions Cup.” Another complaint against Kirsten is that although his contract stated clearly he would just take 30 days vacation in a year, he didn’t even spend 30 days in Pakistan after joining.

The PCB was also put off with Kirsten’s insistence on having more foreign coaches on his team and the dispute between them blew up once the board decided to strip the coaches of selection powers.

The PCB had also sidelined and pushed foreign coaches, Mickey Arthur, Grant Bradburn etc to resign after last year’s WC.

File photo of Gary Kirsten

File photo of Babar Azam© Twitter

The Pakistan Cricket Board has agreed to form a two-member independent committee which will act as a conduit between the national team players, management and the board. PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi, following a day-long cricket connect conference on Monday attended by the board’s top leadership and foreign coaches Gary Kirsten and Jason Gillespie, assured the players that the committee to look into their grievances would be formed soon.

According to sources, the players voiced their concerns regarding problems in communicating with top PCB officials, especially in the international and domestic cricket departments.

Captains Shan Masood and Babar Azam backed by Muhammad Rizwan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shadab Khan and some other players told the meeting that they wanted a “bridge” with the board so that there are no misunderstandings and they can convey their issues and grievances to the board when required.

It was decided that the two-member committee would function independently to improve the communication between players, management, and different departments of the PCB, the source added.

Pakistan is one of the few Test-playing nations where there is still no players’ association recognised by the board.

The players also pointed out that they required a sense of security while representing Pakistan and there should be clarity from the selectors and the board over several issues, including captaincy.

The source said that Mohsin Naqvi assured the players that no imminent changes would be made in the national team captaincy and they should focus on their performances.

Naqvi advised the players to work on building a more cohesive and united environment in the dressing room, the source added.

“He (Naqvi) basically told the players that whoever the board had as captains the players must support them and play as one regardless of the format,” the source said.

PCB Chief Operating Officer Salman Naseer and the two foreign coaches later described the cricket connect session as productive and transparent.

“It provided us a forum to identifying issues and resolving them,” Naseer said.

“The session was about openly and candidly accepting and identifying (issues) and ask for a commitment from each other… demand it on how we can improve our performances and how we work together as a team. Our unanimous view was that we need to resolve this going forward and need to identify how we do it.

Pakistan’s white-ball head coach, Gary Kirsten, emphasised the need to establish the same brand of cricket in the domestic format that is required in the international circuit for success, sources told Geo News. Kirsten met the mentors and the head coaches of the teams in Paksitan’s domestic Champions Cup in Faisalabad. Misbah-ul-Haq, Saqlain Mushtaq, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Shoaib Malik, and Waqar Younis are the five mentors in the Champions Cup. Sources told Geo News that during the meeting, various aspects of cricket were discussed in the presence of high-performance coach David Reid and Director of High Performance and the Champions Cup Nadeem Khan.

Kirsten urged the coaches and mentors to improve the players’ performance by using their experience. He also stressed the importance of using and sharing information as well as learning from each other’s experiences.

According to the sources, Kirsten will stay in Faisalabad throughout the competition to watch and assess the player’s performances.

With the ICC Champions Trophy set to take place in Pakistan next year, Kirsten will be keen to find the balance in the team.

One of the decisions to find that consistency could see Babar Azam’s time as the white-ball captain could be on the verge of reaching its climax. Recently, reports have started to surface about Rizwan emerging as the top candidate to replace Babar.

Since the former South African cricketer took charge of Pakistan’s white-ball head coach, the Men in Green are yet to produce promising results.

Kirsten linked up with the Pakistan team during the England series before the T20 World Cup. Two of the four-match T20I series were washed away by rain, and the remaining two were won by England.

Even in the T20 World Cup, the Babar Azam-led side turned out to be a no-show. Pakistan kicked off their campaign with a Super Over defeat against the co-hosts, the USA.

Pakistan’s arch-rival, India, further increased their woes by getting the better of them in the low-scoring thriller, where they failed to chase down the 120-run target.

Pakistan returned to winning ways by securing victories in their remaining two games against Canada and Ireland. However, their late surge wasn’t enough to seal their tickets for the Super 8 stage in the Caribbean.

After the conclusion of the marquee event, there is a huge gap in Pakistan’s next white-ball series. The Pakistan management has ample time to make the necessary changes for the betterment of their cricket.

After the T20 World Cup heartbreak, Pakistan will play their next white-ball series against Australia in November.

Pakistan Test captain Shan Masood has disagreed with the statement made by teammate and fast bowler Naseem Shah that there is a language barrier between the team and foreign coaches. With former Australian cricketer Jason Gillespie taking over as Pakistan’s new red ball head coach ahead of the two-Test series against Bangladesh, Naseem had said that players face difficulties in communication when the coach is a foreigner. However, Masood has vehemently disagreed with Naseem’s statement, saying that Pakistan have made huge strides in improving in that regard.

Earlier Naseem Shah had said, “There is a language problem with foreign coaches. We need someone to translate the language. It is easier to communicate with the coach in your own language,” as reported by Cricket Pakistan.

However, Masood has subsequently disagreed with it. Masood pointed out the time when South African-Australian Mickey Arthur was the head coach, signalling that as an example of no gap in communication. Pakistan are currently coached in limited overs cricket by former India coach Gary Kirsten.

“I think now there is no communication gap. All of us have spent a lot of time in different dressing rooms. Foreign coaches have come before in Mickey’s time. Mickey has come twice. Different assistant foreign coaches have come,” Masood said, as also reported by Cricket Pakistan.

Mickey Arthur had served as the head coach of Pakistan between 2016 and 2019, a period in which Pakistan had lifted the ICC Champions Trophy title in 2017, beating India in the final.

Masood pointed out that Pakistan’s backroom staff also come from overseas countries.

“Even our support staff, personnel, strength and conditioning coach, and physio, they have also come from abroad. So, I think over the years, the boys have picked a lot of things, played in different leagues, played franchises. Some people have even gone to England and played club cricket in the past,” he added.

Pakistan host Bangladesh for the first of two Test matches on August 21. They currently sit fifth in the World Test Championship (WTC) table for the 2023-25 cycle.