Former Pakistan head coach Jason Gillespie has doubled down on his criticism of Pakistan chief selector Aaqib Javed, saying the selection committee chairman took control of Pakistan cricket and changed the direction the team was supposed to follow.Gillespie, who was appointed Pakistan’s head coach in April 2024 and resigned in December that year, said he was brought in with a clear vision of rebuilding Pakistan’s fast-bowling culture. According to him, that plan changed after Javed became the chief selector.“When I came on board, they wanted to bring back fast bowling,” Gillespie said, while talking to UK-based outlet The Telegraph. “This is what was sold to me when I took on the role. They wanted to prepare surfaces that would bounce and carry and would encourage fast bowling because they felt that fast bowling was dying. I was on board and thought: ‘This is going to be really cool.’”“The appointment of Javed fundamentally altered the landscape,” he adds. “From that moment, my relationship with Pakistan cricket completely changed. Aaqib came in and took over. It appeared to me that he was in charge of absolutely everything.”Gillespie’s comments come after Pakistan made drastic changes during their ongoing tour of England. Following defeats in the first two Tests at Headingley and Lord’s, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) sent seven players home, removed Test coach Sarfaraz Ahmed and bowling coach Umar Gul, and appointed Mike Hesson and Ashley Noffke for the third and final Test in Birmingham starting September 9.There have also been reports that the PCB confiscated the phones of some players in England as part of an inquiry into the team’s “discipline and conduct” during the tour.Senior players Mohammad Rizwan, Imam-ul-Haq and Salman Ali Agha were among the players sent back to Pakistan before Hesson joined the squad. Fast bowler Khurram Shahzad and spinner Ali Usman, who featured in both Tests, were also released, while all-rounder Aamir Jamal and batter Mohammad Awais returned home without playing a match.Meanwhile, Gillespie said working under Javed left him feeling sidelined and disrespected.“I was totally disrespected and undermined and I direct that towards Aaqib Javed. At our first meeting he came in with bravado, bluff, and bluster, wanting to show he was the man in charge. He said: ‘This is what we need to do.’ I listened and said OK. But this kept on happening and I pushed back on a couple of his comments. I just felt from that moment on that it wasn’t going to work because he’d already decided what he was going to do. There was going to be no collaboration whatsoever,” Gillespie added.The former Australia fast bowler said Javed had the backing of the PCB chairman and the board, which made him feel untouchable.“Aaqib had the support of the chairman and the board and that’s why he felt he was untouchable,” Gillespie says. “As a coach, you feel compromised. He was not a collaborative chairman of selectors. He doesn’t take on other people’s ideas, thoughts, or opinions. He might think he does, but he doesn’t. It was his way or the highway.”Gillespie also claimed the PCB still owes him money from his time as coach but said he was not willing to change his principles to stay in the job.“The PCB still owes me thousands of dollars, but I was never going to be a yes man,” he says. “I wasn’t going to compromise on my principles, I never have throughout my career and I certainly wasn’t going to change. I could have stayed quiet, agreed to everything and taken home my salary, but that’s not me and part of me knew I was probably going to be sacked in a couple of months anyway.”Gillespie said Pakistan cricket remains trapped in a damaging cycle and lays the blame at the feet of Javed.“It’s heartbreaking for me to see what’s going on now, it’s a mess,” Gillespie said, as quoted by Telegraph. “I know the crux of it. It’s Aaqib Javed. He is the problem and as long as he is there, then Pakistan cricket will continue to go backwards,” the former Pakistan coach said.
Leave a Reply