Gary Kirsten

Gary Kirsten (born 23 November 1967 in Cape Town) is a former South African cricketer, and current coach of the Indian cricket team. He played 101 Test matches and 185 One-day internationals for South Africa between 1993 and 2004, mainly as an opening batsman. His half brother Peter, also played provincial cricket for Western Province, and then later for the South African Cricket team which included the highlight of the Cricket World Cup in 1992.

Kirsten made his Test debut against Australia in Melbourne in 1993. He retired from international cricket in 2004 after crafting a match-winning 76 in his final innings, against New Zealand. Against the same country he had made history by becoming the first ever Protea to play in 100 Test matches.

Over the years, he gained a reputation as being a sturdy batsman in both Test cricket and one-day cricket. He could up the tempo of an innings if he needed to, but more often than not he simply waited for the bad ball, much like Steve Waugh and Justin Langer. He was also a reliable fielder.

Kirsten held the South African records for most runs and centuries in a Test career, before both were surpassed by Jacques Kallis. He was the first Test batsman to make hundreds against each of the other 9 Test nations. He made a score of 275 against England in 1999, which was another South African record until Graeme Smith made 277 against England in 2003. He still holds the record for highest innings by a South African in a one-day international; 188 not-out made against the United Arab Emirates during the 1996 World Cup, which is the fourth highest innings of all time in One-Day International cricket.

As coach of the Indian National Cricket Team

After retirement, Kirsten organized his own cricket academy in Cape Town.^[1] In November 2007, it emerged that Kirsten was a candidate for the vacant post of Indian coach.^[2] The BCCI offered him a two-year contract for the post, and despite voicing reservations^[3] about concerns he had about having the full support of India players, he confirmed he would be taking the job on December 4th.^[4]

He officially started as coach on March 1st, 2008. However, he travelled to Australia with India beforehand during the test series. His first full series in charge was against his home country, South Africa in March-April 2008 which was drawn 1-1. Also, he coached India to the finals of the Kitply Cup and 2008 Asia Cup (India lost both the finals). During his tenure as Coach of India, Indian cricket team won a home series against Australia beating them 2-0. Apart from clinching the Border-Gavaskar trophy, he also coached India to its first bilateral series win in Sri Lanka against Sri Lanka and India's first One-Day International series victory against New Zealand in New Zealand after 40 years. India also won the Compaq Cup, defeating Sri Lanka in the finals on 14th September 2009 by 46 runs. A highly accomplished batsman himself, he has brought in a considerable amount of improvement in the batting performances, which is largely associated with his ability to instill better confidence among younger players.

Gary Kirsten has been praised by all players for improving/enhancing their playing techniques, motivating them and discussing tactics that can be deployed on the field. The results could be clearly seen within months. He is considered the key force behind the clearly visible performance improvement in all players.

Business Interests

In 2007, Kirsten joined Paddy Upton and Dale Williams to form a company called Performance Zone ^[5]. The focus of the company is to work with individuals and teams in business and sport, bringing out their clients' best performance. When Kirsten was appointed Indian coach and Upton Indian Mental conditioning coach on a two year contract, they decided to continue the business. Its first project, post Kirsten taking on the Indian coach role, is the creation of garykirsten.com^[6], a web site dedicated to the fans of Indian cricket.

References

v • d • e South Africa squad – 1996 Cricket World Cup 1 Cronje (c) • 2 Adams • 3 Cullinan • 4 de Villiers • 5 Donald • 6 Hudson • 7 Kallis • 8 Kirsten • 9 Matthews • 10 McMillan • 11 Palframan (wk) • 12 Pollock • 13 Rhodes • 14 Symcox

v • d • e South Africa squad – 1999 Cricket World Cup Semi-Finalists 1 Kirsten • 2 Gibbs • 3 Kallis • 4 Cullinan • 5 Cronje (c) • 6 Benkenstein • 7 Pollock • 8 Rhodes • 9 Boucher (wk) • 10 Donald • 11 Crookes • 12 Dawson • 13 Klusener • 14 Elworthy • 15 Boje Ntini was named in the original squad, but was replaced on 23 April 1999 by Dawson

v • d • e South Africa squad – 2003 Cricket World Cup 1 Pollock (c) • 2 Boucher • 3 Boje • 4 Dippenaar • 5 Donald • 6 Gibbs • 7 Hall • 8 Kallis • 9 Kirsten • 10 Klusener • 11 Langeveldt • 12 Ntini • 13 Peterson • 14 Rhodes • 15 Zondeki • 16 Smith Replacement for Rhodes