Star coach Kirsten won’t be replacing Flower
WORLD Cup winning coach Gary Kirsten has ruled himself out of the running to be England’s next cricket boss, saying yesterday that the demands of the job would be impossible due to commitments to his young family.
Kirsten, whose fellow South African Andy Flower stepped down from England’s top job following the whitewash Ashes defeat to Australia, has previously guided both India and the Proteas to the peak of the international Test rankings, as well as winning the one-day international World Cup with India in 2011.
“I would regard any position of that nature as a privilege and very humbling that they would think of me, but I’m not really at a time in my life where I could accept it, just because of the nature of my family situation,” Kirsten said, adding that it will be another decade before he could take on such a role. “I think any position of this nature, which requires a lot of travelling, might be a consideration later on in my life. But I’ve got very young kids [so] we’re talking 10 years from now.”
England start their tour of West Indies this week, with the first of three one-day matches in Antigua played on Friday. After the ODIs they move onto Barbados for three Twenty20s beginning 9 March.
The hosts were dealt a blow over the weekend with news that veteran batsman Chris Gayle will miss the opening three matches with a back injury. Gayle still hopes to be fit for the Twenty20 World Cup starting on 16 March in Bangladesh.
Meanwhile South Africa won the second Test against Australia by 231 runs yesterday, to level the series.