After retirement, Gary Kirsten started his Cricket Academy in Cape Town. In November 2007, it emerged that Gary Kirsten was a candidate for the vacant post of Indian coach. The BCCI offered him a two-year contract for the post, and despite voicing reservations about concerns he had about having the full support of India players, he confirmed he would be taking the job on 4 December.
Gary Kirsten officially started as coach on 1 March 2008. However, he travelled to Australia with India beforehand during the test series. His first full series in charge was against his home country, South Africa in March–April 2008 which was drawn 1-1. Also, he coached India to the finals of the Kitply Cup and 2008 Asia Cup (India lost both the finals). During his tenure as Coach of India, Indian cricket team won a home series against Australia beating them 2-0. Apart from clinching the Border-Gavaskar trophy, he also coached India to its first bilateral series win in Sri Lanka against Sri Lanka and India's first One-Day International series victory against New Zealand in New Zealand after 40 years. India also won the Compaq Cup, defeating Sri Lanka in the finals on 14 September 2009 by 46 runs. A highly accomplished batsman himself, he has brought in a considerable amount of improvement in the batting performances, which is largely associated with his ability to instill better confidence among younger players.
Gary Kirsten has been praised by all players for improving / enhancing their playing techniques, motivating them and discussing tactics that can be deployed on the field. The results could be clearly seen within months. He is considered the key force behind the clearly visible performance improvement in all players. In 2010, Prior to the start of India's tour of South Africa, Indian captain M.S. Dhoni described him as "The best thing to happen to Indian cricket."
World Cup 2011
After the tour of South Africa, which India drew 1-1 in the Test series lost 3-2 in ODIs, Gary Kirsten announced he would not renew his contract with BCCI because of family commitments. Gary Kirsten often stated that he wanted to spend time with his two growing sons, Joshua and James, and wife and said three years away from home was long enough. Immediately after the announcement Gary Kirsten was linked with joining South Africa as their coach as the South Africa coach Corrie van Zyl also announced his contract would end after the World Cup as well. Gary Kirsten ended his tenure as coach after India won the 2011 Cricket World Cup defeating Sri Lanka by 6 wickets and 10 balls to spare on 2 April 2011 at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, India. During the celebration, he was carried around the ground by Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan and Virat Kohli to show their respect.
His term as coach to the Indian side has come to an end with the Indian team's victory amidst various media reports of very lucrative offers from various quarters from the cricketing world. But he has cleared the air by adopting a modest approach on his further availability as coach to the Indian team by saying that he has no offer and he wanted to say goodbye to India for the reasons that he wants to spend time with his family.
Watch the final moments as India hit the winning 6!
Testimonials:
"I respect his decision. We will miss him a lot. It's been a pleasure to work with him. He's probably worked harder than anyone else."
–Sachin Tendulkar
“His biggest contribution was that he not only brought a sense of self-belief, but also calm and trust in the dressing room after the earlier period where players did not know whom to trust.” –Sunil Gavaskar
