Jason Gillespie has broken his silence after resigning as Pakistan’s red-ball head coach. The former Australian fast bowler slammed the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for the lack of clear communication.
It was late on Thursday last week that Gillespie stepped down from the role, having spent only six months at the helm. The tensions between Gillespie and the PCB were boiling. While there were multiple reports about PCB’s mismanagement and miscommunication, Gillespie only strengthened those claims.
He admitted that he was entering a zone with challenges, especially given Pakistan’s history with coaches in the recent past. But he said he would’ve wanted better communication. He even revealed that he was blindsided by the sacking of the team’s high-performance coach Tim Nielsen.
“There were certainly challenges. I went into the job eyes wide open, I want to make that really clear. I knew that, you know, Pakistan had cycled through a number of coaches in a pretty short space of time. The straw that broke the camel’s back, I suppose, was, as a head coach, you like to have clear communication with your employer. I was completely and utterly blindsided by a decision to not have a high-performance coach,” Jason Gillespie was quoted saying to ABC Sport.
The 49-year-old acknowledged that it was the sacking of Nielsen which proved to be the final nail in the coffin for him. That decision made him question whether his services are actually required or not by the management.
“Tim Nielsen was told that his services were no longer required, and I had absolutely zero communication from anyone about that, and I just thought after a number of other things that had gone on in the previous few months, that was probably the moment where I thought, ‘Well, I’m not really sure if they actually really want me to do this job or not’,” Gillespie added.
Developed a really close relationship with Shan Masood: Gillespie
Gillespie was appointed as the Test coach earlier this year. He was in charge only for a couple of series, both at home. Pakistan lost to Bangladesh 0-2 and were 0-1 down against England. The pressure was mounting at that stage but alongside captain Shan Masood, Gillespie helped Pakistan turn things around and win the three-match series against England (2-1).
Gillespie said that he formed a great relationship with Masood and felt that the team was heading in the right direction. He also got feedback that Nielsen’s role was important for the players.
“I developed a really close relationship with the test captain, Shan Masood, and felt we were certainly going in the right direction and things were going really well. All the feedback that I’d got or the feedback the PCB got was just how effective, you know, Tim had been in his role as well, and the players were getting a lot out of him,” the 49-year-old further said.
Gillespie had revealed that his role was reduced to a match-day strategist. Hence, he didn’t hide his displeasure about the same. However, he even took over as the interim white-ball coach after Gary Kirsten stepped down in October when Pakistan toured Australia. But given the disparities and miscommunication, he didn’t continue his role with the T20I and ODI team and now, he has also quit as the red-ball coach.
He went on to say that all he was doing was giving catches on the morning of the game. “I felt I was basically hitting catches, and that was about it on the morning of a game,” Gillespie added.
Aqib Javed has taken over as the interim coach across three formats.
