Mickey Arthur: ‘I felt desperately sorry for Gary Kirsten and Jason Gillespie’
Mickey Arthur has made a scathing attack on the Pakistan cricket, called it a “jungle,” which is run by “agenda driven people.” Arthur, who coached Pakistan to the 2017 Champions Trophy title has lambasted Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for the way they treated Gary Kirsten and Jason Gillespie.
Gillespie and Kirsten were appointed to their respective positions in April 2024 but both resigned and were replaced by Aaqib before the end of the year.
Pakistan crashed out of the Champions Trophy in the group stage without a win. Pakistan coach Aaqib Javed has said: “We changed 16 coaches in the last two-and-a-half years and 26 selectors. If you do this to any team in the world, their performance would be the same.”
Taking it on the social media, former Pakistan Test head coach Jason Gillespie has called his successor Aaqib Javed “a clown” and accused him of undermining him and former white-ball coach Gary Kirsten in order to take over their roles.
Former England fast bowler Steve Harminson has asked Arthur about the whole scenario on TalkSports.
Arthur replied: “I love those quotes, to be brutally honest. Jason Gillespie, he is a wonderful coach, he is a wonderful man. Pakistan cricket just continues to shoot itself in the foot. It is its own worst enemy.”
“There are so many good players, they have got the resources now, there is so much young talent, they have an incredible skill and yet everything is just still so chaotic.
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“It is really disappointing to see. When they had signed Gillespie and Kirsten, they had gone down exactly the right route. They had got some really good players because ultimately it is the players that lose out.
“I thought they had signed some very good coaches who were going to take them forward. But then that machine just works in Pakistan, it just keeps undermining. There are agendas driven in the media, it is a jungle out there sometimes.
“I felt desperately sorry for Gary and Jason. There is no doubt in my mind, I think they were undermined. That is very disappointing because it is to the detriment of the players and ultimately to the detriment of Pakistan cricket.”
