Specialised coaching is where professional sport has gone: Gary Kirsten

Gary Kirsten loves visiting India, and particularly Mumbai. It was in Mumbai that his journey as India coach ended in April 2011 after guiding Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s Men In Blue to their second World Cup triumph.

The 48-year-old Capetonian is back in the city. This time to impart specialised coaching to about 50 children – a mix of boys and girls – arranged by Saldanha International Academy at Police Gymkhana ground, not far away from the Wankhede, where Dhoni’s six off Sri Lanka’s Nuwan Kulasekara sealed the ICC World Cup for India five years-and-a-half years ago.

It is expected that Kirsten’s high-performance coaching along with his assistant coach Ryan Cook will benefit the children in becoming better individuals during his five-day clinic. Back home at his academy, Gary Kirsten Cricket Academy, the former left-handed batsman imparts one-on-one coaching to players who otherwise get little individual attention when they are with the team playing matches. The concept is also in vogue in India with Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane going back to Pravin Amre for specialised coaching.

Kirsten said that is the way going forward. “Top players have someone to go back and do one-on-one work. The importance of specialised coaching is you can be specific with the individual because you have got a certain amount of time that he doesn’t get in the context of the team. When you are coach of a team, you are working with 15-16 players and you are going to get ready for a match. When you are in a private coaching space, you can focus your attention on one guy. Also, you are working with a player outside of performance. You are working with him just on technique away from matches that he can focus on getting it right. Think of individual sports like tennis, golf, squash and badminton, you probably find top players have individual coaches to work on their games and that is where professional sport has gone.”

Asked if the five days are enough to guide the kids whom he is seeing for the first time, Kirsten said: “Five days is a long time and there is a lot you can share in those five days. In the coaching space, if you have any worth as a coach, if you are able to add value as a coach, you can actually make a significant difference in five days. Not necessarily watching them play games of cricket but looking at the fundamentals of their technique which is something we spend all day in South Africa.

“Try and look to help in the basic fundamentals of their game and share ideas and thoughts to develop their cricket. We can have certain influences with a few guys. They have not all gone through their fundamentals, which they go through in the first 20 years of their playing career. They are very much learning the fundamentals.

“Sometime, coaching is underplayed in the world. Coaching has a massive role to play in understanding the fundamentals of the game and bring consistency in your game. You ask any international player who has had a mentor throughout his career and he has always gone back to him when his technique is faltering. You can add great value as a coach throughout a player’s career.”

‘Success not guaranteed in cricket’ 

Kirsten also believes that success is not guaranteed in cricket, but the kids can always learn lessons from the game that can keep them in good stead in life.

He said: “My lessons will be to understand what values you can take from a game of cricket. To me there is no guarantee of results. You cannot get a 100 every time you go to the crease. That is why the best players average only 50. Because we cannot guarantee the results, certainly with young players, we can teach other values that sport can bring. That is the beauty of the game.

“It teaches you to be humble because you are not always winning. It teaches the value of teamwork. It is not about you. If you have to win series and competitions, everyone has to perform. It teaches the value of selflessness where you can help your team-mate succeed and enjoy other people’s success. In cricket, especially batsmen, you spend a lot more time failing than succeeding. So, learn to enjoy the success of the team. Cricket brings tremendous values outside of the results. Parents can take a lot out of encouraging their kids to play cricket to teach the values even if they don’t go on play professionally.”

Kirsten certainly learnt a lot during his three-year stint with the Indian team from 2008 till end of the 2011 World Cup. He cherishes the goodwill of the Indian people the most.

“The goodwill of the India people, to come here as a South African and think that you have the silver bullet to winning trophies would have been dangerous to assume. I did not assume that. We just went on a journey. I went on a journey as much as the Indian players in understanding how we can create an environment of success. That was as simple as that. It was as much an enjoyment for the players as it was for me.

“The thing that stood out for me was the goodwill of the Indian people towards a South African. I certainly would not have expected that. I was humbled by that, especially on the World Cup day (April 2, 2011). It left me very emotional to leave the shores of India three days later knowing that I had a three-year journey that was the most memorable time of my life, and it was. It was probably the most significant highlight of my cricketing career.”

Eyes another stint in IPL

Inasmuch as he has had success with the Indian team, the same was not the case during his stint with Delhi Daredevils in the IPL. Hired on a three-year contract, he was fired last December before the completion of his term.
And, Kirsten would like to have another go at IPL, not to prove to anybody but to himself that he can take a team to success in the most popular T20 league in the world. 

“I went from being a good coach to a really bad coach (laughs),” he said when asked what went wrong with Delhi Daredevils. “The one thing I took solace out of this was I got fired by Daredevils in the same week that Jose Mourinho was fired by Chelsea. One thing I learnt in coaching was that you are going to be fired. It is a good thing because I had not been fired up until then. It can happen. I tried my best. I had no IPL experience before. It was my first two years. 

“IPL was a different thing that you need to understand well before you can really have success in it. I’d certainly like to have another go at it. It is a great tournament and I want to prove myself that I can offer value to a team and bring a team to success. We were better in the second year. We went from four-point team in the first year (2014) to a 11-point team in the second year. I was on a three-year plan, I thought third year was going to be Playoffs. But they moved on to Rahul Dravid and Paddy Upton, with whom I worked with the Indian team. Hopefully they will have some more success,” Kirsten said.