Gillespie was appointed the head coach of Pakistan’s Test side in April this year. During his tenure, he oversaw a series defeat to Bangladesh at home before Pakistan bounced back from a series deficit to win 2-1 against England. He was also appointed the interim white-ball coach of the side after Gary Kirtsen’s resignation, helping Pakistan to a memorable ODI series win against Australia Down Under.

Last week, Gillespie reportedly did not get on the flight to South Africa for Pakistan’s Test tour after allegedly putting in his papers. The decision was confirmed on Thursday, with Aqib Javed, also the ODI and T20I coach, taking over from the Australian.

Gillespie has now given the reasons he was forced to take the step. Speaking on ABC Sport, he said that he was always aware coaching Pakistan would have its challenges but he was blindsided by some of the decisions the management had taken: “When I went into the job, I want to make that very clear, I knew that Pakistan had been through a cycle of a number of coaches in a short period of time. I put my case forward and explained how I felt I could help. You want to create an environment where players are relaxed but focused. I felt that the Test side were very much on track doing that.

November 17: PCB confirm Jason Gillespie will coach Pakistan in the South Africa Test series.

December 13: Jason Gillespie steps down ahead of South Africa Test series.

Read here ➡️ https://t.co/vutMXrn6yB pic.twitter.com/WkYvYBFITa

— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) December 13, 2024

Gillespie goes on to reveal the incident that broke his decision to carry on was the PCB parting with Tim Nielsen, the High-Performance Coach, without communicating with him. “The straw that broke the camel's back was, as a head coach, you like to have clear communication with your employer, and I was completely and utterly blindsided by a decision to not have High-Performance coach Tim Nielsen.

He 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 really want me to do this job or not’.”

Gillespie: Reduced role made my job untenable

During his coaching period in Pakistan, Gillespie also had to deal with several changes to the responsibilities he was overseeing. When he was appointed, Gillespie also had the additional role of a selector alongside skipper Shan Masood. However, he was later stripped of having a say in any selection after Aleem Dar, Aqib Javed and Azhar Ali were brought in as the new members of the panel.

Gillespie had confirmed his new role as a “match-day strategist”, something he felt made it tough for him to plan and prepare.

“What I felt was my opportunity to help Pakistan cricket was diminished by the reduced role, in essence, 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, before that, at least the day before the game, so you can help plan and prepare. Those sorts of things proved to be quite difficult and made it untenable.”

Follow Wisden for all cricket updates, including live scores, match stats, quizzes and more. Stay up to date with the latest cricket news, player updates, team standings, match highlights, video analysis and live match odds.