Kirsten was head coach of the Indian cricket team till 2011 World Cup.
Kirsten wasn't interested in coaching and didn't even apply for the high-pressure job, but, speaking on the 'Cricket Collective' podcast, he recalled the "bizarre" series of events that unfolded and changed his life.
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Gavaskar, part of the coach selection panel, specially invited Kirsten to give an interview. As it turned out, he was awarded his predecessor Greg Chappell's contract.
"I got an email from Sunil Gavaskar - would I consider coaching the Indian team," Kirsten recalled.
"I thought it was a hoax. I never even answer it. He sent me another email, and said, 'Will you come for an interview?'. I showed it to the wife, and she said, 'They must have the wrong person'."
"So it was a bizarre entry into the whole thing, and rightly so. I mean, I had no coaching experience or anything."
When he landed in India, Kirsten reminisced, he met the then India Test captain Anil Kumble and they both shared a laugh on the prospects of him being in contention for the job.
"I went for the interview, it was a bizarre experience in many ways because I kind of arrived at the interview and I see Anil Kumble, who's the Indian captain, and he says, 'What are you doing here?'. I said, 'I have come for an interview to coach you!'. So we kinda laugh about it. It was quite a laughing matter."
All it took were seven minutes for Kirsten to get the position. However, he said he had gone unprepared and thanked Ravi Shastri, also part of the panel, for making him comfortable.
"I am in this board meeting with these BCCI officials, and it was quite an intimidating environment; the secretary of the board said, 'Mr. Kirsten, would you like to present your vision for the future of Indian Cricket?', and I said, 'Well, I don't have one.' No one had asked me to prepare anything for it. I had just arrived there."
"Ravi Shastri, who was on the committee, said to me, 'Gary, tell us, what did you guys as the South African team do to beat the Indians?'. I thought it was a great ice-breaker, because I could answer it and I answered it in about two-three minutes without saying strategies that we kind of probably use to this day."
"He was suitably impressed, as was the rest of the board, because three minutes later, I had been in in the interview about seven minutes, the secretary of the board slides across a contract to me."
The contract given to Kirsten initially had Chappell's name on it.
"(I) pick up the contract, and the first page, I am looking for my name frantically, and I can't see my name, but I see Greg Chappell's name, who was the previous coach."
"So I slide the contract back and I say, 'Sir, I think you have given me your previous coach's contract. He kind of looks at it a little bit perturbed, and takes out a pen from his pocket, scratches out his (Chappell) name and writes my name on it," Kirsten said.
During Kirsten's three-year-long tenure, the Indian team became the No.1 on the ICC Test rankings for the first time and achieved the 50-over World Cup glory in 2011.
(Inputs from PTI)