By Daniel Brettig
International cricketers and coaches have a familiar post-play routine. Leave the dressing room at the end of the day, get handed your phone by an anti-corruption official and catch-up on the outside world on the team bus home.
For Pakistan’s coach Jason Gillespie and his high-performance coach Tim Nielsen, that ritual came with a brutal discovery at the end of the first Test against England in Multan. Gillespie discovered, via a Pakistan Cricket Board statement circulated on social media, that he and captain Shan Masood had been sacked from the team selection panel and replaced by ... a former umpire.
It was a jarring moment, and a reminder of the volatility of working on cricket in a nation of 250 million people, and for a cricket board closely entwined with the government: the PCB chair Mohsin Naqvi is also Interior Minister.
Sajid Khan does a trademark celebration alongside Jason Gillespie after the recent Test series win against England.Credit: Getty Images
Another such interlude came a couple of weeks later, after Pakistan rebounded grandly to beat Ben Stokes’ men on a couple of spinning pitches. White ball coach Gary Kirsten, faced with a similar change in role description, had quit, and Gillespie was asked to substitute.
For a tour of Australia where he would already be located, Gillespie agreed, but the instability is something he and Nielsen are weighing up. Gillespie is six months into a two-year deal.
“We need to fit into their system,” former Australia coach Nielsen told this masthead. “They’ve been so desperate for success, and that was the first time we won a Test series in Pakistan for three and a half years, but it is so different.
“You can’t necessarily ask people to do it in Pakistan like we do in Australia. We’re trying to make it as comfortable and safe as we can in the team environment. If there is something going on, we can block that out and worry about playing as well as we can, because there’s a lot of talent in the team.
“The volatility of what we’ve seen in the selection processes or the reaction to wins and losses in Pakistan means there’s plenty going on outside the change room doors, so having that calmness inside is really important. Dizzy’s biggest challenge is will he be willing to go through that work with the emotion of wins and losses over the journey.”
Pakistan coach Jason Gillespie inspects the pitch as giant fans blow air in Rawalpindi.Credit: Getty Images
That emotion resulted not only in the sacking of Gillespie and Masood as selectors, but the elevation of former fast bowler Aaqib Javed and, bizarrely, the recently retired umpire Aleem Dar as a selector. They played the second Test in Multan on a used pitch, then used industrial fans and heaters to dry out the pitch for the final game in Rawalpindi. Extreme measures.
“The PCB came out and made some changes after that Test match,” Gillespie said during the series. “It wasn’t what I signed up for, I’ll be completely honest. But this is one of those situations in which you just need to go with the flow.”
Pakistan have had 26 different selectors since 2021, and there have been three different selection groups appointed since Gillespie started in July. The whole affair was looked upon grimly by former Pakistan captain and former PCB chairman Ramiz Raja.
Umpire Aleem Dar talks with Nathan Lyon (left) and Pat Cummins.Credit: AP
“I don’t know about an umpire being a selector, so the jury is still out,” Ramiz said. “You can’t run cricket from the sidelines. The leader has to be made accountable and the only way to make him accountable is to give him some powers.
“What you need to do is to make sure that once you involve and engage somebody, you’ve got to give them clarity regarding the role. It’s not great news [Kirsten’s departure] because Pakistan needed an experienced hand.”
On the flipside of the chaos, of course, is the quality of the playing stocks. Pakistan dropped Babar Azam against England and still won. For the ODI and Twenty20 games due to begin against Australia at the MCG on Monday, a young squad is stacked with talent. Their main challenge is keeping calm amid the noise.
“We feel as though we had an impact around the group, and also the [Test] captain Shan who is a really fine man and a good, strong leader, and he communicates well,” Nielsen said. “He went a long way to keeping some calmness as well when those selection choices were made.
“I hope the one thing we’re providing for them, and Dizzy is really good at, is a calm and relaxed environment in the change rooms where players can be comfortable in their own skins and not looking over their shoulders.
“It was credit to him and Dizz that we kept calm and kept our eye on the ball.”
For Gillespie and Nielsen, the next couple of weeks will be a case of keeping one eye on the ball, and the other on their phones.
Jason Gillespie salutes the crowd after taking five wickets on an Indian pitch made to order for him in 2004.Credit: AP
McDonald gets the contract extension CA denied Justin Langer
Pat Cummins and Andrew McDonald are set to lead Australia into the national team’s next “mega year” in 2027 after the head coach reached terms with Cricket Australia to extend his tenure until the end of that year.
McDonald’s decision also means he and Cummins have taken responsibility for managing the transition of an ageing team with younger blood such as Sam Konstas and Nathan McSweeney in coming years. Cummins and McDonald agreed to the contract extension last week.
Australia captain Pat Cummins celebrates with coach Andrew McDonald.Credit: AP
Speaking to this masthead, Cummins had previously indicated that he was open to leading the team in Test matches and major white ball tournaments until 2027, which will feature Test tours of India and England plus the next 50-over World Cup.
But he wanted McDonald alongside him to continue their successful coach and captain tandem that began with a drought-breaking series win in Pakistan in 2022.
McDonald, in turn, wanted to ensure he had a strong support team around him, with assistant coaches including Michael Di Venuto, Dan Vettori and Andre Borovec coming off contract at the end of this season.
McDonald became head coach after a drawn out saga around the exit of Justin Langer, who resigned after being offered a short-term contract extension for six months, rather than the two years his predecessor now has.
“Andrew has proven to be an outstanding men’s head coach who as well as delivering exceptional results has built a strong coaching team, methodology and an excellent environment for the team to perform at its best,” CA’s chief executive Nick Hockley said. “We are delighted to extend his tenure for a further two years.”
For McDonald, the contract extension underlines his impact in creating a calm and measured environment around the Australian team, which has demonstrated an ability to withstand pressures on the road and to lift major trophies. The Border-Gavaskar Trophy, held by India since 2017, is the one major garland the team has not lifted since he joined the setup as an assistant to Langer in 2019.
“I am very fortunate to have an exceptional group of leaders, players, coaches and staff who are fully invested in the ongoing well-being, success and development of this group,” McDonald said. “The professionalism, commitment and experience of my fellow coaches and the wider staff have ensured the journey has been extremely successful but just as importantly created a culture of unity, trust and inclusivity.”
Cummins, having gained the captaincy in the wake of Tim Paine’s forced resignation in 2021, now believes he can continue in the role for longer than first thought.
“I feel like I can manage a lot more than what I did back then, just by getting better at it and having some wonderful people around that help,” he said. “It feels like a pretty well-run machine at the moment where the coaches, staff, all the players get on with the work and [I] don’t need to be as hands-on as when I first came in.
“I’m not going to do it forever, but I wouldn’t say it’s imminent that I’m going to step away. With ‘Ronnie’ [McDonald] and the coaching staff we want to keep that together because that makes my job a little bit easier.”
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