Shaun Tait quits as Afghanistan fast-bowling consultant with immediate effect

A day after Lance Klusener announced his decision to not extend his contract as head coach of the Afghanistan national men's team, Shaun Tait has quit as the team's fast-bowling consultant too. Unlike Klusener, who will see out his contract, which runs till the end of the year, Tait has resigned "with immediate effect".

In a short statement, Tait said, "I have enjoyed my time working with the team especially with the young Afghan fast bowlers whom I personally think have a great future. Having access to a great cricketing mind like Lance Klusener (head coach of Afghanistan during my tenure) has been an absolute pleasure."

Tait, the former Australia quick who is now a Level-2-certified coach from Cricket Australia, was signed up by the Afghanistan Cricket Board in August this year for a period of five months, which was expected to run till the end of 2021. Not long after that, though, the 38-year-old Tait also signed a deal with Indian domestic side Puducherry as their bowling coach, saying at the time that he would be with the team "based on availability from my commitments with the Afghanistan team".

While Afghanistan hardly played any cricket in 2020 because of Covid-19, they performed fairly well under Klusener, winning one out of the three Tests, three out of the six ODIs and nine out of 14 T20Is. Since Tait's association with the team, Afghanistan's only international fixtures were at the T20 World Cup, where they lost to South Africa and beat West Indies in warm-up fixtures before winning just two out of their five games in the main competition to crash out in the group stage.