Jason Gillespie hits back at Javed

“Aaqib, Aaqib, Aaqib. I quote Aaqib verbatim. ‘I asked him, ‘What was your plan after the first Test? We lost the first Test against England’. No, you didn’t ask Aaqib. You waited in, and you said, ‘This is what we’re doing.’ We’re changing the team. We are playing on the same surface that we just played a five-day Test on in four days’ time. So it was going to be a day 10 or 11 surface. And I asked them, ‘Why are we doing that?’ We’ve got other surfaces prepared because you’ve got to play on the best surface available. The reason we did not play spinners was because we were instructed before Aaqib and the new selectors came in that you could only pick players who passed the fitness testing criteria. So there were a number of players, who did not meet the criteria. So I spoke with Aaqib and he said,’ Oh, no, no, I’ve spoken to the chairman and we can pick who we want’. What I had an issue with was the suggestion to sprinkle it with sand as well. Not only was it a 10 or 11-day pitch, but we also just sprinkled it with sand. What I also did not agree with, when we went to Rawalpindi, they had big industrial dryers on the pitch and men there scrapping with knives. I did not agree with that either. So give me a spell, Aaqib, you muppet,” Gillespie said while speaking with former Australian pair Glenn McGrath and on the ‘Fast Bowling Cartel’ podcast.

Gillespie was appointed as Pakistan’s head coach for red-ball cricket in April, 2024 with former South African cricketer Gary Kirsten being the white-ball coach of the Pakistan side. With Kirsten quitting the Pakistan role in October the same year, Gillespie too quit his role in two months after PCB sacked assistant coach Tim Nielsen. Last year, Gillespie had spoken about his decision and what led to the decision. “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. 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. 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 before at least the day before the game,” Gillespie had told ABC Sport.

Earlier this week, Javed had spoken about how both Kirsten and Gillespie were not willing to listen to anyone. “Frankly speaking, they used to overrule every selector. They weren’t willing to listen to anyone,” Javed had told YouTube channel Public Sports and Public New. Speaking further, Javed had shared how Gillespie and then Pakistan skipper Shan Masood had no plans for England after the loss in the first Test at Multan. “I went to Multan and spoke with Jason and Shan. I asked them, What was your plan after the first Test against England? They had no plan. I said, This isn’t going to work. We need to change both the pitch and the team. We brought in the spinners, Pakistan won and that’s when things started to go wrong. He then said, “I don’t agree with that,” Javed added.

Gillespie further stated how Kirsten was relieved of his duties. “Gary Kirsten was relieved of his duties after a Test match loss that we had. He last coached the white ball team three months ago, so he got sacked for doing nothing for three months,” Gillespie said on Fast Bowling Cartel’ podcast.