Tag Indian cricket

Fans clap to every four they hit & kids admire them as role models. Money is good & they tour the world for free..

In short - life of a cricketer is a joyride most of us would want.

That said, there's a sad point to being a cricketer too : you retire one day, fairly early in life (around 32-35 year age) and then - life goes empty. no wonder we see them crying on their last day on field!

Post retirement, few former cricketers opt for a job as expert on news channels (critics) and some become TV Commentators while most dissolve out of limelight as fans forget them within a month or two.

BUT, after devoting their heart & soul to the game of cricket - some passionate cricketers decide to coach teams. this breed of cricketers love the game of cricket more than most & start another "joyride"!

Gary Kirsten : former South African opening batsman was a gutsy cricketer, once batted almost 15 hours to save a test match. now within 2 years of starting his coaching academy - Gary gets the biggest cricket coaching job on Earth - that of Indian cricket team. Itsonlycricket has not met the man personally (so far), so no one-to-one observations has been mentioned. what readers have in following, is careful collection of facts about Gary Kirsten as we keep an eye on the improvement he brings to India's cricket team in his 2 years coaching stint : 1st March 2008 to 18th February 2010.

Facts & about Gary Kirsten
**Worked at high-performance center in Capetown and set up his own cricket academy in 2006.
**Gary has cricket in blood. His Father, Noel Kirsten, was curator at Newlands ground in South Africa, and thus - Gary jokes as Newlands was his back garden. his half brother - Peter Kirsten is regarded as one of finest South African batsman ever whereas two other brother - Paul Kirsten & Andrew Kirsten played first class cricket!
**Wrote his autobiography "Gazza", released in November 2004.
**Official website : www.Garykirsten.co.za
**lives with Wife Deborah (a freelance writer), sons Joshua (born in 2003) & James (born in 2007).
**In 1996, after his 62 day tour of India, Gary Kristen wrote in a South African magazine - "To spread cricket to all corners of India, we played in what could politely be classed as one-horse towns, places with more cows on the street than cars. A sense of humour is a necessity on this tour,".. "62 days in a country where westernized living conditions are regarded a luxury, is no task for the faint-hearted" ... Kirsten. now, defends himself saying that he was young then and his views have completely changed. Its an honour for him to coach Indian cricket team. Just to put more info - South Africa, in 1996, played Titan Cup tournament at Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Faridabad, Rajkot, Guwahati and Mumbai while test match venues were Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Kanpur! Reader's Comments.

Test ODI career statistic

Identity	Test Match	One day Internationals
Matches	101	185
Runs	7289	6798
Average	45.27	40.95
100s/50s	21/34	13/45
Top score	275	188 notout
Catches	83	61

Interviews of Gary Kirsten
How a man talks, shows how he thinks and what he believes. Consecutively - what he can do! Since Gary Kirsten is coaching India - following interviews should tell the Indian fans more about their national cricket team coach..

29 Nov 2007 - 3 days before his official appointment, Gary talks to Times Now about how he got the high profile job and what's going in his mind before signing the deal with BCCI!