Africa-Press – Namibia. Namibian cricket made a major scoop with the announcement on Friday that Gary Kirsten had been appointed as coaching consultant to the national team.
Kirsten was one of South Africa’s top batters from 1993 to 2004, while he also became a successful international coach after his playing career.
He scored more than 40 000 runs in all formats of the game, while his 188 not out against UAE in 1996 is still the highest score for a South African at the Cricket World Cup.
After retiring from the game he took up coaching and in 2007 was appointed as head coach of India, who went on to win the Cricket World Cup in 2011. Kirsten later joined South Africa as head coach, taking them to number one in the ICC test rankings in 2012.
Kirsten also coached various T20 franchises throughout the world as well as Pakistan’s national side last year.
Kirsten said it was a privilege to work with Cricket Namibia.
“I have been thoroughly impressed with the dedication and determination to create a high-performance cricket environment,” he said in a statement issued by Cricket Namibia.
“Their new state-of-the-art cricket stadium is a testament to their commitment to making sure their national teams are competing with the best cricket countries in the world. Their senior men’s national team is performing well, and I look forward to adding value to their preparation for the T20 World Cup in February next year,” he added.
At a press conference on Friday, Cricket Namibia CEO Johan Muller announced the appointment of Kirsten, who said he was looking forward to the challenge.
“I’ve been very fortunate to have coached around the world, and I’ve pretty much been on every continent coaching and playing. As a player I went on 38 tours with the Proteas so I’ve got experience and understanding of a lot of different countries around the world,” he said.
“I’ve really enjoyed my coaching journey – people have often asked me if I prefer being a player or a coach and I would say it’s pretty close now – I still think it’s incredible to be able to go out and play for your country, and get a 100 as a batsman, but at the same time, to be able to coach around the world in different environments, different cultures, and getting to understand how cricket works in different parts of the world is something that I’ve enjoyed very much, and particularly now as I reach the twilight of my coaching career, the idea that I could help the smaller cricketing nations is something that motivates me a lot. The idea that smaller teams can beat the bigger teams is something that get’s me going, so to be able to come to Namibia and assist this programme is exciting, but very importantly my role is a supporting role and I want to stay firmly in that space,” he added.
Kirsten said he has been impressed by Cricket Namibia’s pursuit of excellence.
“I’ve definitely noticed in the time that I’ve connected with Johan and the coaching group that there is a real determination around Cricket Namibia to achieving a high performance environment – getting that all in place, and getting the right people to do the right jobs, anything is possible.
“I’ve seen that there is a real intent to create a high performance environment and that often starts with infrastructure. You’ve got magnificent gym facilities, beautiful cricket fields, good net facilities, the coaching staff and you’ve set up a high performance system. That’s often the start because if the high performance system is good it feeds the pathway process to the senior national team and I’ve certainly seen a real determination to make that high performance system work,” he added.
Kirsten will work under head coach Craig Williams and joins the team in their final preparations before the 2026 T20 World Cup which gets underway in India and Sri Lanka at the end of January. They will train in Cape Town for about 10 days before leaving for the World Cup where they will also play a few training matches.
Namibia have been drawn in Group A at the T20 World Cup where they will play against India, Pakistan, the United States and the Netherlands.
Despite their tough group Kirsten said anything was possible in T20 cricket.
“Like any of the pools there are good teams, but anything can happen in T20 cricket – if you get 10 balls right you can turn a game around against any team. A really good period of play can make a massive difference so we are certainly going to have conversations around that – how we want to play against each one of those teams in those conditions. I have been fortunate to have been involved in a lot of cricket in India so hopefully I can add dsome value there,” he said.
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