'Pakistan Cricket Continues To Shoot Itself In The Foot': Ex-Coach 'Loving' Gillespie-Aaqib Javed Drama

'Pakistan Cricket Continues To Shoot Itself In The Foot': Ex-Coach 'Loving' Gillespie-Aaqib Javed Drama

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News18.com

Last Updated: March 12, 2025, 18:13 IST

Former Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur loved Jason Gillespie's criticism of Aaqib Javed, who blamed Pakistan's cricket issues on coaching inconsistencies.

Jason Gillespie slams Aaqib Javed. (Picture Credit: X/@TheRealPCB)

Former Pakistan head coach Mickey Arthur loved it when Jason Gillespie called Aaqib Javed a ‘clown’ on social media for blaming the country’s cricketing troubles on coaching inconsistencies.

Javed is currently Pakistan’s head coach, serving on an interim basis after replacing Gillespie. The Australian, meanwhile, wasn’t supposed to be the white-ball coach in the first place and took the job when Gary Kirsten resigned.

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After Pakistan exited from the home Champions Trophy 2025, Javed told the press that it was due to the team seeing 16 coaches and 26 selectors in the last 2.5 years. Gillespie called him out on this and said Javed was always trying to undermine him and Kirsten to become the coach during their tenures.

“I love this quote to be brutally honest," Arthur, the longest-serving head coach of recent times between 2016 and 2019, told talkSport. “Jason Gillespie is a wonderful coach, wonderful man. Pakistan cricket just continues to shoot itself in the foot. It is its worst enemy. There are so many good players; they’ve got the resources now; there’s so much young talent. They have incredible skill. And yet it’s still so chaotic. It’s really disappointing to see. I thought when they signed Gillespie and Kirsten, they had gone down exactly the right route, and they had got some really good players. Because ultimately it’s the players that lose out," he added.

Gillespie and Kirsten took over the red-ball and white-ball responsibilities, respectively, in the first quarter of the last year.

Both resigned in a span of few months, with reports citing a fall-out with the management and a lack of decision-making power.

Arthur led Pakistan to their last ICC title – the 2017 Champions Trophy but was let go of after the 2019 World Cup. There are not many who know what’s going wrong in the country’s cricketing system better than him.

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“They had got some really good coaches who could take them forward. But then that machine that works in Pakistan that just keeps undermining and agendas are driven in the media. It’s a jungle out there and I feel desperately sorry for Gary and Jason. There’s no doubt in my mind that they were undermined because it’s to the detriment of the players and ultimate to the detriment of Pakistan cricket," added Arthur in the interview.

Though Javed has maintained his position after the Champions Trophy exit, skipper Mohammad Rizwan has been sacked from T20I captaincy and dropped (alongside Babar Azam and Naseem Shah) from the squad for the T20 series in the upcoming tour of New Zealand. He’s still there in the ODI team as the captain.

First Published: March 12, 2025, 18:13 IST

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