Former Pakistan head coach Mickey Arthur has said that he loved Jason Gillespie’s public criticism of Aaqib Javed while also blaming coaching inconsistencies for Pakistan's cricketing troubles.
Aaqib is currently serving the Pakistan cricket team as head coach an interim basis after replacing Gillespie. The former Australian pacer wasn’t supposed to be the white-ball coach in the first place and took the job when Gary Kirsten relinquished.
After Pakistan faced a group-stage exit from the ICC Champions Trophy 2025, Aaqib told the press that the debacle was due to the team seeing 16 coaches and 26 selectors in the last 2.5 years.
Gillespie called him out for this statement, claiming that Aaqib was always trying to undermine him and Kirsten to become the coach during their tenures.
“I love this quote to be brutally honest," Arthur, who has had multiple coaching stints with the Pakistan team, 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 were handed the red-ball and white-ball coaching responsibilities, respectively, in the first quarter of 2024. Both stepped down in a span of few months, with reports citing a fall-out with the management and a lack of decision-making power.
Arthur, who guided Pakistan to their last ICC title in 2017, fully understands what’s going wrong in the country’s cricketing system.
“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," he added.
Pakistan, the designated hosts for the ICC Champions Trophy 2025, failed to make it to the eight-team tournament semi-finals after finishing at the bottom of the Group A standings. The Men in Green lost to New Zealand and India, while their fixture against Bangladesh in Rawalpindi was abandoned due to rain.
This dismal display led to strong reactions from the fans and former cricketers, with many calling for the complete overhaul of the team and coaching staff.
Pakistan will return to action in the upcoming white-ball (five T20Is and three ODIs) tour of New Zealand, starting on March 16 in Christchurch.
