'I’m too old now..' - Gary Kirsten reflects on his tough times as coach of Pakistan Cricket team

Tumultuous—Gary Kirsten preferred to use this word to describe his brief tenure as the head coach of Pakistan. The coach, who made India the champion in the ICC ODI World Cup 2011, was hardly able to make any impact as the Pakistan team coach. But why did he leave the job so early, and how was the experience? Kirsten shared all his experience in a recent interview. 

The former cricketer said that he was barely able to shape the team through a correct process, as there was too much influence over the team from the outside. That made the job hard for Gary. Kirsten also revealed that as a coach he did not have the power to select players for the international side. 

One step further, he also claimed that the influence over the team was from non-cricket persons, which harmed the team. Through the interview, the experienced coach advised the officials to allow the coaches to work freely, without any influence from the outside. 

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Here's what Kirsten said about his stint as Pakistan's head coach

"It was a tumultuous few months. I realized quite quickly I wasn’t going to have much of an influence. Once I was taken off selection and asked to take a team and not be able to shape the team, it became very difficult as a coach then to have any sort of positive influence on the group," the former Pakistan coach said in an interview recently. 

He further added, "If I got invited back to Pakistan tomorrow, I would go, but I would want to go for the players, and I would want to go under the right circumstances... Cricket teams need to be run by cricket people. When that’s not happening and when there’s a lot of noise from the outside that’s very influential noise, it’s very difficult for leaders within the team to walk a journey that you feel like you need to walk in order to take this team to where it needs to go."