The former Australia cricketer, Jason Gillespie, who recently left the post of Pakistan’s head coach in Test cricket, said on Monday that he quit because he felt “completely and utterly blindsided” by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).
Gillespie resigned last week, but his agreement was set to end in 2026, and he showed his disappointment over the lack of conversation, which made him feel that his services were not needed by the Pakistan Cricket Board.
“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,” Gillespie told ABC Sport. “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.”
As ESPNCricInfo originally reported, the PCB expelled Tim Nielsen and did not renew his contract, but he was willing to continue with PCB. He was hired on the suggestion of Gillespie, as the best performance coach of the team. This had disappointed Gillespie and his distrust with PCB started.
“Tim Nielsen was told that his services were no longer required and I had absolutely zero communication from anyone about that,” Gillespie said. “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 want me to do this job or not.”
Gillespie received a positive response regarding Nielsen and the team’s performance, this made him more disappointed.
“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,” he expressed. “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.”
Gillespie’s training helped Pakistan team to a 2-1 win against England in October, after losing the first match by an innings and 47 runs. However, after losing the first Test, he came to know that new selectors would be added, and his role in the selection panel is not more required.
Gillespie also expressed that often he was not even informed about team line-up until the day before a match. He got a feeling that his services as a head coach were vanished. Due to lack of clarity and conversation, his dissatisfaction with PCB increased regarding his post.
“I felt I was basically hitting catches and that was about it on the morning of a game,” he said. “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 before at least the day before the game,” he further added.
