Ex-Pakistan Test coach says he would never compromise his principles \u201cdespite PCB owing him thousands of dollars\u201d
\nsydney
\nFormer Pakistan Test coach Jason Gillespie has urged Mike Hesson to stand by his principles and trust his instincts as he takes charge of Pakistan\u2019s red-ball setup.
\nGillespie, who stepped down as Pakistan\u2019s Test coach in December 2024 after an eight-month stint, offered the advice ahead of Hesson\u2019s first Test in charge after being brought into the red-ball setup during Pakistan\u2019s ongoing tour of England.
\n\u201cMy advice to Mike would be: trust your instincts and don\u2019t be a yes man,\u201d Gillespie said, as quoted by The Telegraph.
\n\u201cI know him, he\u2019s a great guy and I think he\u2019s an excellent coach. I hope he just doesn\u2019t get caught up in all this mess just because he\u2019s happy to accept a pay cheque.\u201d
\nHesson has taken charge amid another period of upheaval in Pakistan cricket, with the team undergoing a major overhaul following heavy defeats in the first two Tests of the ongoing series.
\nThe Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) sent seven players home and parted ways with head coach Sarfaraz Ahmed and bowling coach Umar Gul as part of the overhaul.
\nGillespie said his warning was shaped by his own experience with the PCB, which he described as deeply frustrating and damaging to his confidence.
\nHe said his role changed significantly after Aaqib Javed became chairman of selectors, after initially being given responsibility for the Test side, players, staff and selection.
\n\u201cWhen I came on board, they wanted to revive fast bowling in Pakistan, they wanted to prepare pitches that had a bit of bounce and carry, and I thought that would be cool,\u201d Gillespie said.
\nHowever, he said Aaqib\u2019s appointment \u201cfundamentally altered the landscape\u201d and left him with virtually no influence over the team.
\n\u201cI went from looking after the Test side, managing that and looking after the players and the staff and having a role in selection to then absolutely no role in anything,\u201d he said.
\nGillespie also accused Aaqib of undermining him, saying the experience left him deflated, affected him mentally and made him question whether he wanted to remain involved in coaching.
\nEx-coach claims PCB still owes him money
\nGillespie also claimed the PCB still owes him \u201cthousands of dollars\u201d, nearly two years after his departure.
\n\u201cThe PCB still owes me thousands of dollars, but I was never going to be a yes man,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cI wasn\u2019t going to compromise on my principles. I never have throughout my career and I certainly wasn\u2019t going to change.\u201d
\nThe former Australia fast bowler said he could have remained quiet, agreed with everything and collected his salary, but that was not who he was.
\n\u201cI could have stayed quiet, agreed to everything and taken home my salary, but that\u2019s not me,\u201d he said.
\nGillespie added that part of him knew he was probably going to be sacked within a couple of months anyway.
\nReports in April 2025 said Gillespie believed the PCB owed him money, while the board maintained that he had breached his contract by resigning without serving the required notice period.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ex-Pakistan Test coach says he would never compromise his principles \u201cdespite PCB owing him thousands of dollars\u201d sydney Former Pakistan Test coach Jason Gillespie has urged Mike Hesson to stand by his principles and trust his instincts as he takes charge of Pakistan\u2019s red-ball setup. Gillespie, who stepped down as Pakistan\u2019s Test coach in December …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":102763,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102752"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102765,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102752\/revisions\/102765"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}