KIRSTEN AIMING TO FIRE WELSH BID IN HUNDRED
GARY Kirsten scored 7,289 runs in 101 Tests for South Africa and has coached both his country and India – a team he led to their glorious 50-over World Cup triumph in 2011.
Kirsten, 53, has had many challenges over the course of his long cricket career both on and off the field and he is now readying himself for what could be one of his biggest yet.
The former left-handed batsman is currently quarantining in Montenegro having flown from his native South Africa and = arrived in Cardiff on yesterday.
His job in the Welsh capital is to take charge of Welsh Fire’s men’s team in the inaugural The Hundred competition which starts on July 21.
Kirsten’s task is to get cricketers from England, Wales, South Africa, New Zealand and Afghanistan all gelled together as quickly as possible and he has an unusual plan in mind.
Rather than get his new team straight into the nets, Kirsten wants the players to focus on embracing Welsh culture with trips to Principality Stadium – the home of Welsh rugby – and a hike in the Brecon Beacons both planned for next week.
“You have to build a common purpose and I think that’s very important,” he said.
“While it’s nice to have Welsh players in the team, with franchise cricket people have got used to the fact you can have players from anywhere representing your team.
“We want to embrace Wales as our common cause. We’re going to get really creative next week and we’ve already arranged some events where we’re trying to integrate ourselves into the Welsh culture. I’m particularly looking forward to that.
“We’ve planned a long hike up Pen y Fan on Tuesday. I’m quite keen to make it fairly challenging. “The guys have played a lot of cricket so the first week is more about team building.
“We’re doing a tour of Principality Stadium and I think one of the Welsh rugby players will come to give us a talk on their journey. That will be a lot of fun.
“We’ve got another event we’re trying to organise on the Wednesday evening with another prominent Welsh personality too.
“We’ll play a bit of golf together and have as much fun as we can in the few days we’ve got together before we play.”
The inaugural season of The Hundred had to be delayed from its scheduled start date for last summer due to Covid-19 and the pandemic has forced all eight teams into squad changes.
Welsh Fire and Kirsten are no different. England’s Ollie Pope has withdrawn injured while New Zealand internationals Glenn Phillips and Jimmy Neesham have come in as overseas stars.
Kirsten initially had Australian pair Steve Smith and Mitchell Starc in his team and West Indies all-rounder Kieron Pollard has also had to withdraw due to injury, but he is prepared to adapt. Like most sports coaches in this pandemic era, there is no other choice.
“I recall going to The Hundred draft in October 2019 and a year and a bit later picking a whole new team,” Kirsten said via Zoom from his hotel room in Montenegro.
“It’s great it is eventually getting off the ground. I’m very encouraged by the squad. It doesn’t make it easy when you lose a lot of players along the way, but the thing I’m encouraged by is the majority of the players have had a lot of success over the Blast which has been fantastic.
“Our international contingent has chopped and changed a little bit, but Glenn has had a wonderful run of form and James has done very well internationally.”
The new 100-ball competition has its critics from more traditional cricket supporters, many of whom believe its introduction comes to the detriment of the county game.
But Kirsten will work with a strong Welsh Fire men’s team which includes England World Cup winners Jonny Bairstow and Liam Plunkett. Bairstow will captain the team but could yet miss some games if he returns to England’s Test side.
“I’ve got used working in shortformat cricket where you only have a week or so to get a team together. It’s not easy, but in team sport building connections is a priority,” said Kirsten.
“Our priority in the first couple of days is to build connections, get to know each other, and find the shared and common purpose we all want to achieve.
“The advantage we have is we are representing Wales which is really exciting. I was in India in 2008 when the IPL started and that was a new tournament. It took off massively and the Big Bash in Australia had a market drive to bring a new audience to the game of cricket.
“That’s proven to be a success as well and I’m confident The Hundred will do the same.”