“Who was the last non-Australian coach of the men’s team?” - Gautam Gambhir hails ODI world champions for trusting own people

Former India opener Gautam Gambhir has praised Australia for showing trust in their former players when it comes to hiring coaches. According to Gambhir, India and Pakistan must learn from Australia and stick to coaches from their respective nations.

Australia beat India by six wickets in the 2023 World Cup final to lift the ICC trophy for the sixth time. As for Pakistan, they failed to qualify for the semi-finals of the tournament.

While discussing Australia’s amazing success on the big stage, Gambhir told Sportskeeda that the Aussies are rewarded for trusting in their people.

“Who was the last non-Australian coach of the men’s team? Their head coach is always Australian. They had Justin Langer, now Andrew McDonald and before them some other Australian. I said this a year back that India and Pakistan should have coaches from their own country and people had criticized it a lot. A lot of people said that we won under Gary Kirsten [as coach in 2011],” he said.

Urging India and Pakistan to take a leaf out of Australia’s book, the 42-year-old went on to add that emotions are very important in sports.

“The emotion that Rahul Dravid will have when he wears that white or blue T-shirt, no foreign coach will have that. We have such a rich history, we do not have to look outside. We are not a nation that has started playing cricket 10 years back. We have players who have won us World Cups," the former opener said.

“Emotions are very important in sports - what you think about your country and your team. Australia’s biggest strength is that they never look at foreign players as head coach. They will hire consultants, but not for long-term because they believe in their people. We need to do the same,” Gambhir added.

India won the World Cup under Kirsten as coach in 2011, but Anil Kumble, Ravi Shastri, and Rahul Dravid have been their coaches in recent years.

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“Pakistan is a one-sport nation, they can’t even organize that properly” - Wasim Akram on why Australia is far ahead of Asian nation

Sharing his views, former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram opined that Australia’s professional approach to sport is what separates them from his country.

Praising the Aussies, he elaborated:

“It’s not just one off. It’s all about structure, mindset, culture, facilities. India is coming up in other sports as well. Pakistan is a one-sport nation. There is no other sport here and they can’t even organize that properly. There [in Australia] every sport has a system, funds are allocated. I think, last year, Australian government spent about 150 million dollar on sports.”

Pakistan finished fifth in the 2023 ODI World Cup, winning four and losing five of their nine league games.