Jason Gillespie resigns as Pakistan Head Coach

Why did Jason Gillespie quit?

The former Australian fast bowler's resignation has come less than a fortnight before the two-match test series in South Africa. The test series might look innocuous at first glance but holds importance in terms of World Test Championship rankings. The hosts would need a win to guarantee their spot in the WTC 2025 Final. 

Gillespie refused to travel to South Africa with the Pakistan cricket team. But the biggest reason behind the move was PCB not renewing the contract of the high-performance coach, Tim Nielsen. The former head coach felt disrespected by the cricket board when he was not taken into consideration for what had transpired between PCB and Nielsen. 

The head coach was not given the reasoning behind Nielsen not having his contract renewed. He was not even asked or even told before the PCB made the decision to do so. Gillespie was happy with the bond the former high-performance coach had formed with the players and felt he was an important part of the setup. 

Many including the former head coach believe that Nielsen was not given a renewal as he is not based in Pakistan. However, Gillespie and the entirety of his coaching team had made themselves available for the test series against South Africa and the West Indies.

While this was the final straw for Gillespie to leave the job behind there were a few other reasons as well. Earlier a few months ago, he was removed from the selection panel of the test team. The former head coach felt that after being axed from the selection panel this wasn’t something he had signed up for. Alongside Gillespie, Pakistan’s test captain, Shan Masood was also removed from the panel.

Pakistan test team in 2024

Hosting Bangladesh in August, Pakistan infamously lost a test match for the first time against The Tigers. However, they sunk even further as Bangladesh recorded a historic clean sweep against a country of whom they were a part up until 1971. Many predicted Gillespie to be axed after the 2-0 loss but he managed to retain his job. A three-match series against the Bazballers, England followed.

No one predicted Pakistan to perform positively against England. The series was predicted to be a showdown between David and Goliath. The first match backed the emotions of fans and experts as the hosts were handed a defeat by an innings in Multan. Between the first and second matches, the PCB restructured its selection panel by adding Aaqib Javed, Aleem Dar, Azhar Ali, Asad Shafiq, and Hassan Cheema. 

From August 2021 to October 2024, Pakistan used as many as 26 selectors, 8 coaches, and 4 captains across formats. Such is the instability in the PCB camp.

However, amongst all the chaos, on the field, the Pakistan team led by spinners, Sajid Khan and Noman Ali won the following two tests to win the series 2-1. 

Despite winning his last series as the head coach where the hosts were given next to no chance from former players and fans, Gillespie did not have many people on the board who had his back. 

Pakistan will play two tests against South Africa on Boxing Day and the New Year test at Cape Town. The tour to South Africa will be followed by a home series starting with two tests on the 16th of January 2025.