I was completely and utterly blindsided: Gillespie

A week after quitting as Pakistan’s red-ball coach, Jason Gillespie has taken a swipe at the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).

In an interview with ABC Radio on Monday, the former Australia Test pacer said that he “was completely and utterly blindsided' by decisions taken by PCB.

Gillespie, who led Pakistan to a 2-1 Test series triumph against England earlier this season, said that he knew PCB did not want him to continue as coach adding that the “straw that broke the camel's back” was the board’s decision to fire high-performance coach Tim Neilsen without taking him (Gillespie) in confidence.

"There were certainly challenges," Gillespie said in what was his first interview after stepping down as Pakistan’s Test coach.

"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."

'Lack of communication'

Gillespie lamented that there was a lack of communication with PCB.

"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.

"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 really want me to do this job or not.'"

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Gillespie believes that he and Pakistan team were going in the right direction.

"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."

He rued the fact that the PCB had deprived him of all authority.

"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."