Jason Gillespie has resigned as head coach of the Pakistan Test side. PCB officially released a statement in this regard. This was confirmed after a few days of uncertainty when Gillespie refused to board the flight to join the team in South Africa.
The flight to South Africa was scheduled to depart at 6 AM from Adelaide on Friday. However, Gillespie informed the PCB that he had no intentions of boarding that flight. He decided to walk away from the assignment as the relations between the head coach and the board had hit an all-time low.
Aaqib Javed is assigned as the interim head test coach for the South Africa series. At the moment, Aqib is the interim coach for both whiteball sides.
The Pakistan board said in a statement that “The PCB has named Aaqib Javed as interim red-ball head coach following the resignation of red-ball head coach Jason Gillespie.”
The new interim coach’s first red ball assignment will be the two-test match series scheduled to be played in South Africa. The first test match is set to start at the SuperSport Park in Centurion from 26 to 30 December. The second test match will be played at Newlands Cricket Ground in Cape Town from 3 to 7 January.
The first time Gillespie was angered after the Pakistan board decided to not renew the contract of high-performance red-ball coach Tim Nielsen. He was especially frustrated as he was not consulted for the decision.
Neilsen wanted to continue with the Pakistan team but was informed that his services were no longer required. That seems to be the final straw for Jason. That is why he communicated to the board that he would not board the flight under the current circumstances.
Well, all we can say is that the relationship which has continually fractured over the past few months reached a breaking point.
