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Gary Kirsten, former South African batsman, has been appointed as the new coach of Team India for two years. He will take over the job officially from March next year ahead of the home series against South Africa. It is interesting that his first coaching assignment with Indian team will be against his own country. However, Gary Kirsten is expected to meet Indian players at Bangalore during the third test against Pakistan. BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah has confirmed that Gary Kirsten will be with Indian team as a consultant during the tour to Australia which is set to start from later this month.

AFP reported:

"Kirsten has signed the contract, he will take over the new assignment on March one next year," board secretary Niranjan Shah told AFP.

"Kirsten will be spending a couple of days with the Indian team in Bangalore during the third Test against Pakistan," he said.

"He will be with the Indian team in Australia as a consultant for a couple of weeks before taking over full-time in March when India host South Africa."

Gary Kirsten is going to be the third foreign cricket coach for India’s national team after John Wright and Greg Chappell. After the early exit of Indian team from this year’s ICC world cup, former Australian captain Greg Chappell resigned from his job and since then Indian team has been supported by the local coaches including Ravi Shastri, Chandu Borde. At this moment, Lalchand Rajput is working as the assistant coach of the national team.

Though Gary Kirsten does not have any notable coaching experience to his credit, he got lots of success in his cricketing career. Playing 11 years for South Africa, Kirsten has 7289 test runs with 21 centuries as well as 6798 ODI runs with 13 centuries. What is interesting is that some of the senior cricketers of Indian team including Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and current test captain Anil Kumble played against Gary Kirsten. Having retired from international cricket in 2004, Gary Kirsten has completed level 3 cricket coaching and got involved with the high performance unit in South Africa. Last year, he also went to Zimbabwe to conduct a cricket clinic. Besides, these coaching assignments, Gary Kirsten has built up a cricket academy by his name in Cape Town.

Gary Kirsten thinks that getting the coaching job of Indian team as a great honor. He sees it as one of the biggest challenges of his career.

Sport.bizcommunity reported:

“It will be a great honour to coach the game’s most passionately supported team, and I can’t wait to take on what I know will be one of the biggest challenges of my ongoing career in cricket,”

“I’ll be with the team during the third and fourth Tests to facilitate the transition,” said Kirsten.
“A plan will also be made for me to meet with the Indian team before they leave for Australia on December 17.”

There is confusion among the cricket analysts that if India’s high profile cricketers can take this appointment easily. However, test captain Anil Kumble has given a positive remark over the appointment of Gary Kirsten. Terming him an asset of Indian team, Kumble has said that his skill as a player will help India.

Rediff reported:

"He has been in a team that has been successful in the late 90s. His skills as a player will be an asset to the team," the leg-spinner said on the eve of the second India-Pakistan Test in Kolkata.

In response to Kumble’s remark, Kirsten responded delightfully and said:

"I am happy with Kumble's comment. It is important to fall in relationship with players. India has got a good bunch of talented players; it is a good mix of youth and experience."

However, former Indian cricketers like Ajit Wadekar are not happy with the appointment of Gary Kirsten. Pointing to his lack of coaching experience, Ajit Wadekar has said that Indian team does not need any foreign coach at all. If needed then Indian selectors should have been appointed a local coach who would have understanding of the Indian style of cricket. Here, I am giving an excerpt of his interview given to Rediff:

Now that the BCCI has finally selected Gary Kirsten, do you think it is the right choice or would you have preferred someone else as a foreign coach?

I certainly would have gone for some other candidate, a better candidate than Gary Kirsten. He has no experience of coaching any international side so far. Let alone the South African team, he has not coached any other side in his own country. So I do not know what kind of experience he is going to bring with him to coach our Indian team. More importantly, when he toured India in 1996 he did not have a good opinion about our country, which is developing, about our people and about the infrastructure we had then. But so much has changed for better in India now. So why do you want a guy with no coaching experience at all and with a somewhat prejudiced mind against our country and our people? If at all we had to appoint a foreign coach, there might have been better candidates.

Some of other former cricketers including pacer Atul Wassan also thinks that it is a wrong decision to give the job to someone like Gary Kirsten who has less experience in coaching. However, Daryll Cullinan, former team mate of Gary Kirsten, thinks that he is the right person for Indian team. Though Cullinan also believes that it is a great challenge for him and one of the toughest works will be to cope up with the Indian media.

Cricinfo reported:

Cricket is big news in India and it is not just about a winning Indian team but getting a story. All the media would ask of the coach is that he is polite and gives them their due. He would do extremely well to win them over. An Indian coach who is good with the media will spend more time in the job, even with a losing team.

I firmly believe that Kirsten is the right man for the job and that he has what it takes to keep Indian cricket growing and being successful. Whether he can take India to new heights remains to be seen, for Indian cricket is a complex issue. I am proud that the most demanding job in cricket has gone to a former team-mate and a South African. I wish him well.

No doubt, organizing Indian team will not be an easy task to do for Gary Kirsten. Furthermore, most of the former Indian cricketers are already unhappy with his appointment. So, the task has already become harder for Gary Kirsten. However, at the end of the day, his fortune will depend on the performance of Indian team. So, Gary Kirsten should give much focus on the players from the very beginning of his coaching career rather than the media.

Related Articles:

AFP

Reuters

Cricinfo

Rediff

Cricinfo profile of Gary Kirsten