LAHORE: Aaqib Javed was named Pakistan’s interim red-ball head coach following the resignation of Jason Gillespie, the country’s cricket board said on Thursday night.

The development adds yet another post to Aaqib’s portfolio, who is currently a member of the selection committee as well as the national side’s white-ball interim head coach.

The former pacer’s first assignment in his newest role will be Pakistan’s upcoming two-match Test series against South Africa, which starts in Dec. 26.

According to sources, Gille­s­pie’s decision comes as a reaction to the Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) move to not extend the contract of the team’s high-perform­ance coach Tim Nielsen, who was hand-picked by Gillespie as part of his management staff after he took charge of the role in April.

Gillespie’s departure is another story of the PCB’s inability to retain well-regarded foreign coaches, with Gary Kirsten having stepped down as Pakistan’s white-ball head coach in October after reportedly falling out with the board over the selection of the teams for Pakistan’s recent tours of Australia and Zimbabwe.

Both Gillespie and Kirsten were brought in by PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi in April to restore stability within the Pakistan men’s national team setup after 13 months of interim administrative setup in the board had seen a number of coaches come and go.

Mohsin, too, however, has clearly failed to do so, and his move to remove the coaches from the national selection committee and revamping it by appointing Aaqib, Azhar Ali and Aleem Dar in it showed his lack of trust in the Australian Gillespie and South African Kirsten.

The revamp came hours after Pakistan’s defeat in the first of three Tests against England, with the side bouncing back to win the next two matches to take the series, consolidating Aaqib’s hold on the cricketing affairs as the de facto chief selector.

With Kirsten removed days before the Aus­­tralia series, Gille­spie was handed the white-ball head coach role for the tour Down Under, but he was replaced by Aaqib for the following Zimbabwe series, with the former pacer handed the post until next year’s ICC Champions Trophy, while he also continues to be a selector.

Gillespie was still expected to return for the South Africa Tests, but his resignation rules out any such chances.

While Kirsten’s only assignment as Pakistan’s white-ball head coach was last summer’s T20 World Cup — which saw the side subjected to a shock loss against co-hosts United States before failing to make it to the Super Eight stage — Gillespie coached the team in three Test matches.

The former Australian pacer’s tenure started with Pakistan’s 2-0 whitewash at home at the hands of Bangladesh, before the national team went down to England on a flat track in Multan.

The resignations of Kirsten and Gillespie have added to the PCB’s reputation for instability, particularly when it comes to foreign and local coaching staff. Previous coaches, including Geoff Lawson and Mickey Arthur, also faced difficulties in completing their contracts, often following shifts in PCB leadership.

In his relatively short tenure, which spans just 10 months, incumbent PCB chief Mohsin has overseen significant upheaval in both the selection committee and the coaching staff — changes that have raised concerns about the long-term stability of Pakistan’s cricketing structure.

Published in Dawn, December 13th, 2024