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Richard Pybus has been appointed as the new head coach of Afghanistan cricket team, according to a press release by Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) on Tuesday. Pybus replaced Jonathan Trott, whose tenure ended after Afghanistan's campaign finished in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026.
The 61-year-old Pybus is set to join Afghanistan team ahead of the upcoming white-ball series against Sri Lanka in March. After taking charge in July 2022, Trott oversaw Afghanistan's rise as a competitive white-ball side. Under his guidance, Afghanistan entered the semi-final in the T20 World Cup 2024 edition. In 2026 edition, the Rashid Khan-led side managed to win only two group-stage matches and failed to enter the Super Eights. Pybus has a distinguished international coaching career. He is a three-time ICC Cricket World Cup-winning Head Coach & Director of Cricket and brings a wealth of elite-level experience and a proven record of building high-performance systems. His recognised coaching journey includes serving as Head Coach, Director of Cricket, and Head of High Performance for the West Indies cricket team from 2013 to 2019. During this period, he designed and managed the high-performance structure that led to a historic treble of ICC World Cup victories in 2016, when the West Indies Men's, Women's, and U19 teams all secured world titles in a single calendar year, which marked the first in the history of international cricket. Previously, Pybus served as Head Coach of the Pakistan National Cricket Team and guided the side to the ICC Cricket World Cup Final in 1999, which they lost to Australia. He has also held a senior leadership role with the Bangladesh Cricket in 2013. He has a strong coaching record in South African domestic & franchise cricket, where the teams under his guidance secured nine championship titles, which is also a national record. Additionally, he was named South African Cricket Coach of the Year twice. He has also played a significant role in the development of individual players, including Pakistan's Mohammad Rizwan and South Africa's Faf Du Plessis. Additionally, he worked with Dale Steyn and helped him become one of the greatest bowlers in the history of cricket. Beyond his on-field accomplishments, Pybus is a highly respected academic and performance strategist. In 2022, he received a Doctorate in Professional Practice from Middlesex University in London in recognition of his research on the principles behind the "Optimal Performance System." This framework is designed to achieve consistent and winning results across various cultures and high-performance environments. In addition to his Doctorate, Pybus holds a postgraduate degree from Greenwich University in London and a BA Hons degree from Portsmouth University in the UK. Pybus is a Level Four CSA Certified Coach and has an Executive Coaching Certificate from the Neuroleadership Institute. Furthermore, he is a Certified Performance Coach and a Master's Level NLP Practitioner. (ANI)
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