‘No clear communication, blindsided’: Gillespie reveals why he quit as Pakistan coach

New Delhi, Dec 16: Jason Gillespie has revealed he had no clear communication with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on the playing eleven before a matchday and added his role as their red-ball coach had reduced to him hitting catches.

Gillespie, the former Australia fast bowler, took over as Pakistan’s red-ball coach in April for a two-year deal and led the side to a 2-1 series victory at home over England in October. But Gillespie resigned from his role last week ahead of Pakistan’s Test series in South Africa.

Aqib Javed has now been named as the interim Test coach of Pakistan and also handles white-ball duties after Gary Kirsten exited from the role in October. “I felt I was basically hitting catches,and that was about it on the morning of a game.”

“You want to be able to have clear communication with all stakeholders, with selectors, for instance, knowing what the team is as head coach well before the game, or at least the day before the game,” said Gillespie on ABC Grandstand show during the third Test between India and Australia at the Gabba.

He also said the communication between him and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) was not clear, while the sacking of high-performance coach Tim Neilsen and his reduced role, including not having a say in the selection committee, ultimately led to him stepping down from his role.

“I went into the job eyes wide open, I want to make that really clear. I knew that Pakistan had cycled through a number of coaches in a pretty short space of time, but I put my case forward and explained how I felt I could help.”

“You want to create an environment where players are relaxed but focused and get out and do the job and give them the freedom to go out and play the game. I felt that in the red ball, in the Test side, we were very much on track doing that, which culminated in that series win against England.

“So a lot of good stuff happened from when I took the job on to where things have finished up (now), I didn’t get on the plane on Friday. 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.

“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’,” he said.

Gillespie also elaborated on the great relationship he had with skipper Shan Masood and that the feedback about Nielsen’s work had been positive. “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 Tim had been in his role as well and the players were getting a lot out of him. They called him grandpa and there was some good banter between the boys.”

“Shan and I spoke a lot about that and the players about whether you play one Test match or 100, it’s irrelevant. If you’ve got something of value to contribute to the team you can do that in a safe space and we felt we were making so many gains in that space,” he concluded.