Former Pakistan Test coach Jason Gillespie has taken a strong stand against criticism and accusations of negligence made by Pakistan Chief Selector Aaqib Javed.
For a short eight months starting in April 2024, Gillespie was in charge of both the red ball and white ball teams. During his reign, the 2-1 Test series triumph over England in the winter of 2024—who had defeated Pakistan at home two years prior—was a significant turning point.
After the Englishmen demolished Pakistan in the first Test of the series in Multan, Javed criticised Gillespie and then-captain Shan Masood for their supposed negligence in failing to defeat the Englishmen. Jason Gillespie recounted the exchange, citing Javed’s comments on the subject.
“I believe that this is also somewhat personal for me. Aaqib Javed, the chairman of the Pakistani cricket team’s selectors, has a query. Why did Jason Gillespie and Gary Kirsten step down? After that, he was quoted, and I’ll read it word for word. To be honest, they used to overrule all of the selectors.
“They refused to listen to anyone. I visited Multan and had conversations with Jason and the captain, Shan Masood. What were your plans following the first test against England, I asked them? They had no strategy.
This isn’t going to work, I said. Both the team and the pitch need to be changed. The spinners were brought in. Pakistan prevailed. On the Fast Bowling Cartel Podcast, Jason Gillespie stated, “That’s when things started to go wrong.”
The same pitch was used for the second Test, which Pakistan eventually won. Jason Gillespie disclosed the behind-the-scenes details, saying that Javed went into the dressing room and told the team that spinners Sajid Khan and Noman Ali would be added to the squad and that they would be playing on the same pitch as in the first Test.
The former Australian fast bowler also revealed that Javed breached the fitness standard for player selection when he changed the squad: “You didn’t ask.” You entered and declared, “This is what we’re doing, we’re changing the team.” It was supposed to be a day 10 or 11 surface because we are playing on the same surface that we just completed a five-day test on in four days.
I questioned him, saying, “Why are we doing that? We have other surfaces ready. You have to prepare the best surface, and you play on the best surface available.” “We didn’t play the spinners because we were told, prior to Aaqib and the new selectors coming in, that you could only pick players that had passed the fitness testing criteria,” Jason Gillespie continued.
“He decided that they were going to change.” You couldn’t select them if you didn’t meet the requirements for the 2K time trial. We were therefore prohibited from selecting a number of players. I then told Aaqib about this. “I’ve talked to the chairman, and we can choose who we want, and I can choose who I want,” he continued.
Jason Gillespie also expressed his disapproval of the pitch curators’ deliberations over sanding the surface to encourage spin and their attempts to artificially wear down the pitch.
“My problem with the pitch was that I disagreed with the recommendation to add sand to it as well. It was a 10-11 day pitch, so why would you dump sand on it? I disagree with that.
I disagreed with that. Another thing I disagreed with was the presence of large industrial dryers on the pitch when we travelled to Rawalpindi following our victory in the test match.
Men are using their nails to scrape them. Thus, I also disagreed with that,” Jason Gillespie remarked.
Jason Gillespie went on to say that after Pakistan’s loss in the first Test, Gary Kirsten was fired, forcing the former Australian fast bowler to assume the role of white-ball coach. The issue was amusing, according to Gillespie. “And you know the funniest thing about that? After we lost a test match, Gary Kirsten was removed of his selection duties. Three months have passed since he last coached the white ball squad.
As a result, he was fired for doing nothing for three months. “For example, there was no cricket for three months, and he was relieved of his duties as a selector.” At that point, he had participated in the selection of the team to travel to Australia. After that, Aaqib took over and completely altered the team. Gillespie concluded, “And Gary actually said, well, what I didn’t, I wasn’t consulted on any of this.”
