Gary Kirsten’s story of becoming the Indian coach

Gary Kirsten will go down in Indian cricketing history as one of its greatest coaches. Kirsten’s tenure with the Indian cricket team was largely successful, as India tasted success, becoming the No.1 ranked Test team in the world, and winning the World cup in 2011 after a 28-year long wait. Guru Gary’s four years at the helm of the Indian cricket team, saw him not only forge great relationships with the senior cricketers but was also a time when talented youngsters including the current RCB and Indian skipper Virat Kohli rose through the ranks and became mainstays in the Indian setup.

Now, nine years after his celebrated regime came to an end, Kirsten has revealed the curious story behind his appointment as the coach of the Indian team on Cricket Collective Podcast.

“I got an email from Sunil Gavaskar - would I consider coaching the Indian team,” Kirsten recalled. “I thought it was a hoax. I never even answered it. He sent me another email, and said, ‘Will you come for an interview?’ I showed it to the wife, and she said, ‘They must have the wrong person.’” 

Kirsten believes he was justified in doubting the authenticity of the conversation as he had no prior coaching experience. “So it was a bizarre entry into the whole thing, and rightly so. I mean, I had no coaching experience or anything,” he said. 

Kirsten recalls a jovial conversation with Indian and RCB legend, the great Anil Kumble upon his arrival in India. “I went for the interview, it was a bizarre experience in many ways because I kind of arrived at the interview and I see Anil Kumble, who’s the current Indian captain, and he says, ‘What are you doing here?’ I said, ‘I have come for an interview to coach you!’ So we kinda laugh about it. It was quite a laughing matter,” Kirsten fondly recounted.

Kirsten, however, recalls the scene turning contrastingly grim soon, as the interview room had an ‘intimidating’ feel to it. ”I am in this board meeting with these BCCI officials, and it was quite an intimidating environment; the secretary of the board said, ‘Mr. Kirsten, would you like to present your vision for the future of Indian Cricket?’, and I said, Well, I don’t have one. No one had asked me to prepare anything for it. I had just arrived there.”

The current Indian head coach, Ravi Shastri came to his rescue, Kirsten says. “Ravi Shastri, who was on the committee, said to me, ‘Gary, tell us, what did you guys as the South African team do to beat the Indians?’ I thought it was a great ice-breaker because I could answer it and I answered it in about two-three minutes without saying strategies that we kind of probably use to this day,” Kirsten said.

That short answer which lasted about four minutes was sufficient to convince the BCCI bigwigs to offer him the role. “He was suitably impressed, as was the rest of the board, because three minutes later — I had been in the interview about seven minutes — the secretary of the board slides across a contract to me,” he added. “I pick up the contract, and the first page, I am looking for my name frantically, and I can’t see my name, but I see Greg Chappell’s name, who was the previous coach. So I slide the contract back and I say, ‘Sir, I think you have given me your previous coach’s contract. He kind of looks at it a little bit perturbed, and takes out a pen from his pocket, scratches out his (Chappell) name, and writes my name on it,” Kirsten ended on a lighter note.

[PTI inputs]