Photo Credit: Insatgram Photo of @gillespiesports
Cricket Australia and broadcasters have come under fire for prioritizing the upcoming five-Test series against India over the recent ODI series against Pakistan, as stated by Pakistan’s head coach, Jason Gillespie.
Pakistan secured a historic 2-1 series win, their first ODI series victory in Australia since 2002, but Gillespie expressed his disappointment over the lack of promotion for the matches.
“To be honest, I pretty much saw no promotion of our one-day series by Cricket Australia, which was a bit of a surprise. It’s pretty obvious that they’re prioritising the Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test series against India because I saw no promotion of this series,” Gillespie was quoted as saying.
“Fox do a great job promoting, but it was pretty clear to us where CA’s priorities lie. That’s their prerogative and their decision, but I just didn’t see any advertising, and promotion of this one-day series at all. The fact it was behind the paywall as well probably limited the amount of advertising and interest in the series. The timing of it … it’s really difficult for administrators to schedule all the cricket in. But it has felt from Pakistan’s perspective that based on selections and promotion of the series that their priorities have been India. Everyone can see that, it’s pretty obvious.”
Gillespie further noted that Pakistan anticipated changes to Australia’s lineup in Perth, where Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc, Steve Smith, and Marnus Labuschagne were rested.
“We knew that there was probably going to be some change, knowing what Australia have coming up. You always thought at the back of your mind were they going to send the big quicks over to Perth to play one 50-over game,” he said.
“We anticipated that, and that’s the nature of modern cricket, and it’s up to selectors and coaches to manage their players as best they can. Australia chose to do that. It was pretty obvious that this three-match one-day series wasn’t the highest of priorities for Australia.”
Despite this, Gillespie praised Pakistan’s performance, saying, “All we can do as Pakistan is play against the opposition that’s presented, and we did that really well. It was pleasing not just to beat Australia but beat them pretty convincingly. The reality is we should have won the first game as well.”
Meanwhile, India is preparing to achieve an unprecedented third consecutive Test series win in Australia, having won the previous series in 2018-19 under Virat Kohli and in 2020-21 under Ajinkya Rahane. The series kicks off in Perth on November 22, followed by a day-night Test at Adelaide Oval from December 6 to 10.
The competition will then move to The Gabba in Brisbane from December 14 to 18, followed by the Boxing Day Test at Melbourne Cricket Ground from December 26 to 30. The series concludes in Sydney, starting January 3.
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Name of Author: Cricexec Staff
