Gillespie breaks silence on stepping down as Pakistan red-ball coach

ISLAMABAD: Jason Gillespie, who recently resigned as Pakistan’s red-ball head coach, has finally broke the silence about his decision to part ways with green shirts, attributing it to concerns about the key decisions made by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).

The former Australian player, who was appointed as Pakistan’s red-ball coach in April, stepped down from his role just over a year into his contract, refusing to join the squad on their tour of South Africa due to growing frustrations with the PCB.

In an interview with ABC Radio, Australia’s national radio, Gillespie disclosed that he was kept unaware of the decision not to renew the contract of High-Performance Coach Tim Nielsen.

A former Aussies coach said, “As a head coach, you like to have clear communication with your employer. I was completely and utterly blindsided by the decision to not have a senior high-performance assistant coach.”

“This situation, along with past incidents, made me question whether I was truly needed. Not informing the head coach about such a major decision compelled me to think this way.”

“I had developed a really close relationship with the Test captain Shan Masood, and we were certainly going in the right direction,” he added. “That’s why this decision was so frustrating.”

Nielsen, a former coach of the Australian team, had been praised for his work with the Pakistan team during their recent white-ball tour of Australia, where Pakistan won the ODI series. “All the feedback I and the PCB had received was how effective Tim had been in his role. The players were getting a lot out of him,” Gillespie said.

“The lack of communication from the PCB made it difficult to do my job effectively,” Gillespie said, adding that my role was reduced to minimal tasks, like catching balls during practice, and I was left out of key decisions like team selection.