Ex-SA cricket coach Jason ‘Dizzy’ Gillespie’s comments labelled as ‘pretty insulting’ by SACA grade clubs

SACA Premier Cricket club coaches have hit back at criticism from departing state coach Jason Gillespie, who left the role with a stinging rebuke on the way out.

South Australian Premier Cricket coaches have fired back at outgoing state and Adelaide Strikers coach Jason Gillespie over his stinging criticism of the local club scene.

Gillespie, who has left his dual roles at SACA with a year to run on his contract to coach Pakistan’s Test team, accused those involved in SA club cricket of having “a chip on their shoulder’’ and wanting the men’s state team, formerly known as the Redbacks, to fail.

“It was almost that people are happier when the South Australian team are not performing,’’ Gillespie told Code Sports in a vicious parting shot, claiming he had been worn down in his pursuit of SA’s first Sheffield Shield since 1995-96 by a culture of negativity and self-interest in SA cricket.

“It’s very much all about their own individual clubs. There’s so much negativity.

“I would have loved one day in my role at South Australia for someone in club land to say, ‘what can we do to help South Australian cricket?’ Never got that once. It’s all ‘what is the SACA’ doing for us?’’

The 71-Test Australian pace great’s comments, where he also claimed there had been a strong push back against the recruitment of players from outside SA, have not sat well at club land among coaches, players, volunteers and supporters.

Outgoing South Australian cricket coach Jason Gillespie. Picture: Mark Brake/Getty Images

Gillespie’s 1995-96 SA Sheffield Shield-winning squad teammate Mark Harrity, who has coached West Torrens to seven men’s first-grade premierships in his eight seasons in charge and overseen the development of a host of first-class players, said he was “bitterly disappointed’’ by Gillespie’s comments.

“Speaking from a personal point of view, I have always tried to help SA cricket and want our top team to do well,’’ said former left-arm speedster Harrity, who took 178 wickets in 66 first-class games for SA from 1994-2003.

“As a club coach, we have a responsibility to get results for our club but the time and effort we invest in our players to help them become as good as they can and try to get them into first-class ranks, for minimal financial reward, well, to hear ‘Dizzy’s’ (Gillespie’s) comments, it’s pretty insulting.

“Many of us coaches go to watch our state team play and get very excited when one of our club players gets to represent the state. We are 100 per cent behind them and I hate it when you read derogatory public comments on social media about the team, it hurts.

“The coaches also understand that you are not going to have 11 homegrown players in your state team, no state does, but sometimes players from across the border, who have not performed any better than some local players, walk straight into our state team ahead of them, which is frustrating.’’

West Torrens coach Mark Harrity fires one down for South Australia in a Sheffield Shield match against Victoria in 1995.

Port Adelaide coach Matthew Weeks, who has been at the helm of the Magpies for nine seasons and led them to last season’s two-day premiership, said he was shocked and disappointed by Gillespie’s comments and was “sick of Premier Cricket copping the blame for the Redbacks’ failures’’.

“We are the whipping boys, which I don’t think is fair,’’ said Weeks, a Bradman Medallist who played two first-class games for SA from 2004-09.

Weeks said he had enormous respect for Gillespie but described his comments that club people wanted the state team to fail as “certainly not how we see things’’.

“I think there are greater issues in this state and to blame Premier Cricket all the time – and all the volunteers who do a bloody good job – is just wrong,’’ he said.

“I think our Premier Cricket competition is as good as any Premier Cricket competition in Australia and the Glenelg side we beat in this year’s grand final, well, that team was as good a side on paper as any club in Australia could field.

“So to blame Premier Cricket for what has gone wrong in this state is a bit rich.

“For SA state cricket to get back on its feet and be successful, you have to look a bit deeper and look at growing the game at a grassroots level and investing in more regions, rather than targeting just one pocket, Adelaide, of the state.’’

Port Adelaide coach Matthew Weeks after winning the SACA premiership shield in 2013-14 as a player. Picture: Dean Martin

Adding to Premier Cricket clubs’ frustrations is the continued push to cull clubs and the move to two divisions, which has increased the number of teams from 13 to 14 and put them under more pressure to be a part of division one.

Triple Bradman Medallist and former SA first-class bowler Rob O’Shannassy, who played four matches for SA in 1976-77, said he felt that “club-land is being portrayed as a scapegoat for the poor performance of our South Australian team’’.

In a letter to the editor of The Advertiser, he described the percentage of interstate “fringe players added to the squad and given generous opportunity at the highest level at the expense of local talent’’ as “an abject failure’’.