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Former Pakistan red-ball coach Jason Gillespie recently criticized Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Mohsin Naqvi for missing an important team-building session for the senior men’s team, which was called Connection Camp. Gillespie pointed out that while he flew in from Australia and then white-ball coach Gary Kirsten arrived from South Africa for the meeting, Naqvi joined via Zoom.

Gary had this great idea for a connection camp where everyone shared experiences. I traveled from Australia, Gary came from South Africa, and the chairman just called in from his computer, Gillespie mentioned on The Howie Games podcast. He’s based in Lahore, but didn’t bother to come in person. We both thought it was odd that he couldn’t take a 20-minute drive.

The connection camp took place on September 23, 2024, with the goal of improving teamwork and performance among the national team players, including stars like Babar Azam and Shadab Khan.

Gillespie and Kirsten were hired as head coaches for both formats in April of the previous year, but they resigned seven to eight months later due to issues with PCB regarding their roles.

In other news, the PCB recently announced that four out of five members of the men’s selection committee will stay on. This panel includes Azhar Ali, Asad Shafiq, Aaqib Javed, and former umpire Aleem Dar. The only change is Usman Hashmi, who takes over as the new data analyst but won’t have voting rights like his predecessor, Hassan Cheema. There was speculation about a complete shake-up, but the PCB put out a statement denying that, while also hinting that moving forward, the head coach and captain will be included in the team selection process.