During the Wisden Cricket Patreon podcast, Gary Kirsten finally disclosed what made him leave his position prematurely.

Gary Kirsten and Jason Gillespie were appointed in April 2024, while Jason Gillespie was given the Test coaching duties. Former batter Gary Kirsten s premature leave was because of the administrational instability in the structure of Pakistan. Soon after the teams for Pakistan’s white-ball tours to Australia and Zimbabwe were declared, Gary handed in his resignation, as neither Gary nor Gillespie was consulted in the selection process.

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Gary divulged on the podcast that the reason behind his leave was because he noticed he wouldn’t have influence over the team s decisions. “It was a tumultuous few months, Gary explained. “I realised 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.”

Even though Gary and Gillespie both were in charge of rejuvenating the Pakistan cricket team, it was not easy for them as they were left out of the freshly formed five-member selection panel. When coach Tim Nelson got removed, Gillespie quit as well, although he wasn’t already satisfied with being only a “match-day strategist”; the removal of Tim Nelson as coach is what tipped him over the edge, he added. It left a “sour taste” in his career.

A reoccurring pattern in Pakistan’s cricket emerges all the time and can be seen in this case as well and that is instability in administration, which Kirsten realized early as he found himself in a system that had a crack in authority and wouldn’t let him do what needs to be done in order to achieve results.