High performance keynote speaker, leadership coach and cricket legend
Corporate teams, sports organizations, leadership forums and groups seeking actionable lessons on culture, performance and mindset.
Gary Kirsten is a former South African international cricketer and one of the most respected coaches in world cricket, best known for guiding India to the 2011 ICC World Cup title. As a left handed opening batsman, he enjoyed an illustrious playing career from 1993 to 2004, earning 101 Test caps and 185 ODI appearances. He became the first Protea to reach 100 Test matches and was recognized for his technical discipline, adaptability and understated mental toughness.
After retiring, Kirsten transitioned into coaching with the same clarity and focus that defined his playing days. He served as head coach of the Indian national team, leading them to World Cup victory and to the top of the ICC Test rankings. In 2011 he was appointed coach of the South African national team, where he continued to champion performance excellence before stepping down in 2013.
Kirsten later founded Gary Kirsten Cricket, a global coaching business offering player development, team training and coach education. He also established the Gary Kirsten Foundation, dedicated to building sporting ecosystems in township communities by creating safe, accessible cricket facilities and development pathways.
Gary Kirsten is the former South African cricketer and ICC World Cup winning coach of the Indian cricket team, played 101 Test matches and 185 One Day Internationals for South Africa between 1993 and 2004, mainly as an opening batsman.
He retired from international cricket in 2004 after making history by becoming the first-ever Protea to play in 100 Test matches. He was also appointed as the coach of the South African cricket team in June 2011 and stepped down in August 2013.
After retirement, Kirsten established, Gary Kirsten Cricket, which is a global cricket business that provides coaching for individual cricketers, teams and coach education locally and Internationally.
He has a great passion for the development of sporting talent in South Africa and also Founded the Gary Kirsten Foundation which focuses on the creation of sporting ecosystems and healthy alternatives for township communities by providing quality infrastructure that is safe and accessible to people in the townships.
Gary Kirsten is known for his straightforward approach and has the knack of simplifying often complicated issues. His passion for excellence and accountability is infectious.
Gary offers the following to his audience:
A left-hander with a specialized batting technique, Gary Kirsten was known as one of the strongest pillars of the South African top-order. Gary is a former South African cricketer and the World Cup winning coach of the Indian Cricket team.
He played 101 Test matches and 185 One Day Internationals for South Africa between 1993 and 2004, mainly as an opening batsman. Gary’s game revolved around his basic strengths and weaknesses and his ability to adapt to different conditions.
Gary debuted against Australia in Melbourne in 1993 and over the years, His ability to concentrate for longer periods saw him becoming the leading South African run-scorer and centurion in Tests.
His career-best knock of 275 came in 14 and half hours, the second-longest innings in terms of duration in the history of cricket, when South Africa followed on against England at Kingsmead in 1999-00.
Later, in 2003, he returned to England to haunt them and in the Headingly Test, scored a crucial 130 that helped South Africa win the Test by 191 runs.
After he retired from the game, he was the batting consultant of the Warriors for some time and in 2006, he set up his own Cricket Academy in Cape Town. In 2008, he was elected to coach the Indian cricket team and over the next two years, changed the fortunes of the team.
Gary’s personality was often reflected off-the-field when he mentored the Indian team. Under him, India did extremely well as they gradually scaled the No.1 rank in Test cricket, when the Indian team won the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup.
In skipper MS Dhoni’s words, Kirsten was “the best thing to happen to Indian cricket”. He was later named coach of the South African national team in 2011. His attention to detail and structured approach makes him an effective communicator.
His articulate and eloquent manner combined with an unmistakable presence endears him to all. Known for his straightforward approach, Gary has the knack of simplifying often complicated issues. His passion for excellence and accountability is infectious.
LEADERSHIP PHILOSOPHIES
It seems that we’ve forgotten that school is a place where you learn. It’s a place of preparation, not performance. Once you have learnt skills and gained confidence based on real competence, you are better prepared for the stress of performance and competition. As a proud father and sporting icon,
Gary also enjoys speaking to parents and educators about their approach to our children’s sport-life, and how it affects the children’s entire lives.
Gary Kirsten shares remarkable parts of his own story, and helps us to rethink and sharpen our involvement in school sports.
Known for his straightforward approach, Gary Kirsten has the knack of simplifying often complicated issues. His passion for excellence and accountability is infectious. He is a Professional Speaker, Sports Star
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In this short interview, Gary Kirsten reflects on a humorous anecdote about his own brief early cricket experience to introduce a deeper point about talent identification. He explains that match results alone are never a reliable indicator of long-term potential. Instead, effective coaching requires watching players in natural, pressure-free environments such as the nets, where their coordination, instincts and small flashes of ability become visible.
Kirsten highlights how subtle movements — the way a player holds or tosses a ball, their balance, timing or confidence handling equipment — can reveal far more than a scorebook ever could. These “little flare moments,” as he calls them, help coaches understand whether a player may have the foundational skills to grow into something special.
He also discusses the psychological side of talent development. Using his son as an example, Kirsten explains how belief can limit or unlock performance. His son, an opening bowler, bats low in the order not because of lack of ability but because he doesn’t yet believe he can succeed. Kirsten sees clear batting potential in him and is working to nurture the confidence needed to move up the order.
Throughout the clip, Kirsten reinforces that real coaching is not about judging what a player is today but seeing who they could become. Talent, he suggests, is often hidden beneath lack of experience or self-belief, and great coaches learn to recognize and draw out that potential.
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