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Jason Gillespie rues lack of communication from PCB regarding decision to not renew Tim Nielsen’s contract.
Jason Gillespie resigned as Pakistan’s Test coach over selection dispute. (Picture Credit: AFP)
Jason Gillespie has pointed to a lack of clear communication and being ‘utterly blindsided’ on key decisions as reasons for quitting as Pakistan’s head coach. The former Australia pacer, who led the side to the 2-1 series win over England at home in October, resigned ahead of the Test series in South Africa.
Gillespie signed a two-year deal with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in April alongside Gary Kirsten, who also quit in October. Gillespie and the PCB’s relationship broke down slowly but steadily — beginning with him being removed from the selection panel. He was then left angered when the board didn’t renew high-performance red-ball coach Tim Nielsen’s contract without consulting him.
“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,” Gillespie said on ABC Grandstand show.
“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 spoke about the relationship he had with Test skipper Shan Masood, who also worked in great conjunction with Nielsen.
“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.
Aaqib Javed has now been named the interim coach for all formats. Pakistan will play the first Test against South Africa in Centurion on December 26. The second will take place in Cape Town starting on January 3.
