'Completely and utterly blindsided': Gillespie slams PCB for 'lack of communication'

Sydney: Former Australia pacer Jason Gillespie on Monday slammed the PCB, revealing that he stepped down as Pakistan's Test head coach after being "completely and utterly blindsided" by the country's cricket board.

Gillespie, whose contract was set to expire in 2026, resigned last week and he expressed his frustration over the "lack of communication", which led him to feel that the Pakistan Cricket Board no longer wanted him in the role.

"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," Gillespie told ABC Sport.

"I was completely and utterly blindsided by a decision to not have a high-performance coach," he added.

The PCB didn't review the contract of Tim Nielsen, who was brought in on the recommendation of the former Aussie quick, as the high performance coach of the team.

"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 want me to do this job or not." Adding to Gillespie's frustration was the fact that the feedback given to him regarding Nielsen and the team's performance was positive.

"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," he said.

"All the feedback that I'd got or the feedback the PCB got was just how effective, you know, Tim had been in his role as well and the players were getting a lot out of him." Gillespie guided Pakistan to a 2-1 win against England in October, after losing the first match by an innings and 47 runs.

However after the loss in the first Test, he was informed that a new selection panel would be introduced, and he would not be a part of it.

He felt his role as head coach was diminished and even suggested that he often didn’t know the team lineup until the day before a match.

This lack of clarity and communication only deepened his frustration with the PCB's handling of his position.

"I felt I was basically hitting catches and that was about it on the morning of a game," he said.

"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," he said.