Jason Gillespie has confirmed he won’t be England’s next cricket coach with another Australian, Trevor Bayliss, set to be given the top job.
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) on Monday announced it was in “exclusive negotiations” with a preferred candidate who’s widely reported to be current NSW coach Bayliss, who is believed to be travelling to England for further talks.
It fell to new ECB director Andrew Strauss to tell Gillespie he was out of the running.
“I’ve spoken to Andrew Strauss and I’m not that preferred candidate,” the Yorkshire coach told Sky Sports.
Asked if he was disappointed, Gillespie replied: “I think it would have been a good job to have – no question.”
“There’s exciting times ahead for English cricket and it would have been a great challenge but it’s not to be.”
The 40-year-old insisted he had a “wonderful” job at Yorkshire and with the Adelaide Strikers and he was looking forward to continuing in those roles.
Bayliss, 52, is less well-known than Gillespie but has a fine coaching pedigree.
He led NSW to two Sheffield Shield titles, helped Sri Lanka to the 2011 World Cup final and won the Indian Premier League with the Kolkata Knight Riders.
He is also a former colleague of current England caretaker coach Paul Farbrace.
The pair joined forces in Sri Lanka and together endured a 2009 terrorist attack on the team bus in Pakistan.
Australian spin king Shane Warne had – like most pundits – thought Gillespie “was the man”.
But he thinks Bayliss will do a great job too.
“If Trevor Bayliss is the new coach of England, then England are very lucky, as he is a ripper and even better, he’s pure old school too,” the Test great said on Twitter.
Warne, who played against Bayliss, expects he’ll be a “background sort of coach”.
“He’s done a wonderful job, on all the reports, with the teams he’s coached,” Warne told Sky Sports.
“Everyone’s a big fan of Trevor Bayliss. He’s fair, he’s harsh, and he creates a pretty good environment.”
Former England captain Nasser Hussain suspects Strauss may gone for Bayliss over Gillespie due to the former’s experience coaching limited-overs cricket.
“He’s obviously hugely experienced and also in one-day cricket,” Hussain said on Monday.
“Jason Gillespie hasn’t done a lot of one-day cricket … whereas Bayliss has done IPL and Kolkata Knight Riders.
“England need to look at their one-day cricket so maybe he just ticks more boxes.”
Hussain argues England needs an “external view” considering its poor run of form in the shorter versions of the game.
He dismissed talk Bayliss might not be suitable simply because he didn’t play international cricket himself.
“They key really is for him to get in that dressing room and start to know the players and get very close to the England captain Alastair Cook and the one-day captain Eoin Morgan.”
Another former England captain, Michael Vaughan, hinted he would have gone with Gillespie.
“He (Bayliss) has a good track record but it would be a big surprise,” Vaughan told the BBC.
“You look at Jason Gillespie’s pedigree – he’s in our system and took Yorkshire to the title.
“He was a part of one of the greatest teams in Australia.”
13th Man
Guest
Langer will be up there too mate
13th Man
Guest
My theory is that Dizzy said he wanted KP so he didn't get the job. Anyway, its him or JL as Australias next coach!
Nudge
Guest
As I said I'm the other article alex the poms have a very good attack for English conditions. Go through the wickets in the second dig and you'll see most wickets were from excellent bowling.
Alex L
Roar Rookie
I don't agree, both are about the same, NZ let themselves down hugely with the bat.
JimmyB
Guest
I agree that Graves said far too much on a few different topics before he'd even taken office. Strauss was just clearing up his mess. I've got no issue with Strauss whatsoever.
Nudge
Guest
India must have shown him some kind of respect because after the first test, where he had no success, he only went for around 3 an over nearly every innings and got some cracking batsmen out. He completely out bowled the opposition spinner this test as well averaging about 30 for the test while Craig averaged 80 odd. Throw in some pretty darn handy runs as well. It's got me beaten how you could say,drop Moeen who has an excellent test record, for a specialist spinner, when going by the West Indies tour Tredwell is the next best they got and he's about 6 years older than Moeen and averages 36 or 37 in first class cricket. Moeen Ali has a huge upside with his bowling. He would have never spent more time practising his bowling than his batting. If he can be a bowler that can average around 33 with the ball and come in and bat at 8 that is going to be a massive advantage for the Poms. Personally I really hope your right and they do get rid of him. Having a tail of say Tredwell at 8 Broad at 9 Wood at 10 and Anderson at 11 is like playing 4 players in your team that are best suited at batting no 11.
Nudge
Guest
Yep england are a heck of a lot better attack than the kiwis. Broad and Anderson are a better opening pair than Southee and Boult, Wood and Henry are probably on par, Moeen is a better spinner than Craig, and Stokes is 100 times better 5th bowler than Corey Anderson. I actually think if Stokes decided to just concentrate on his bowling ( which ain't going to happen) he could become England's best bowler. That one over he bowled last night was near unplayable. Williamson who is one of the best bats in the world had no idea. Beaten with 2 crackers on the previous 2 balls he was finally good enough to edge one to gully, then Mccullum got a near unplayable in swinger that was just too quick. Poms bowled brilliantly last night.
Gav
Guest
Jimmy, love him or hate him, it was badly handled by Graves through to Strauss. Not a good start at all for the new leadership of English cricket
Colin N
Guest
Gillespie didn't decline, he's said publicly that he wasn't offered the job.
Colin N
Guest
Re: the 3rd quick, I liked Mark Wood in this Test. Good pace, was accurate and was unlucky not to get more than four wickets. Agree about Moeen, though. I can't ever see him being a frontline spinner. I thought it said a lot that Joe Root caused more problems for the batsmen than Ali did on the final day. Another thing they need to address is Broad's batting and the lower order in general. If you're going to have batters the quality of Moeen or Buttler down at eight, you need to have tailenders that are able to stick with them. It happened in the West Indies when Buttler, batting at eight, ended three not out.
Andy
Guest
Yeah there is no way that they would accept an Aussie after those two typical English gents Duncan Fletcher and Andy Flower..
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
I'm not sold on Moeen as a specialist bowler, a view shared by many English pundits also. He's had one very good series but otherwise has looked short of a specialist spinner. That good series was against India, who treated him with zero respect, trying to smack him around like he was a rank part timer, and as a result they gifted him a truckload of soft wickets. In the other Tests Moeen's played, sides have played him properly like they would a frontline spinner and he's been way less effective - he's averaged 43 in the Tests against SL, Windies and NZ. Don't get me wrong, he's a very good all-round cricketer, I just don't think he's up to being a specialist spinner at this point. He's shown enough with the ball to suggest he may be able to get to that level eventually but, to my mind, he'd be better off honing his bowling in county cricket in the meantime while an actual specialist spinner plays in the Tests.
JimmyB
Guest
I equally find all of the new found love for Saint Kev to be a bit OTT too.
Nudge
Guest
There spinner is looking good Ronan. 11 tests and averages 30 with the ball is a brilliant start to a off spinners career, time to give him some credit. He has done his duty nearly every test he's played. Factor in he can seriously bat and comes in at 8, he could be an absolute nightmare coming in then against a tiring attack. The ashes is going to be a great battle.
Chris
Guest
isnt bayliss australian too? the man was born in goulborn for goodness sake. i think its more a case that england got the guy they wanted and dont care that he is australian.
CW
Guest
Can see the old stuffed shirts that ran England cricket in the dark ages squirming in their graves. "Oh the shame. An England cricket team being coached by an "oorrstralian'. This will never do. A colonial in charge of our team of gentlemen. Oh the shame".
CW
Guest
So the Poms did not get the Aussie they were hunting. I think Dizzy realised at the eleventh hour that he could be walking into a possible mine field if he took the role. So he declined. In the end the ECB got a Aussie. Trevor Bayliss lifted the Blues to several shield crowns as is an astute coach with the ability to get the best out of a player. Sorry to see him lost to Aussie cricket. At least for the short term. So what will Dizzy do now?
Alex L
Roar Rookie
No, they have an average bowling attack. Two elite fast bowlers, one of whom is very rusty at long form bowling (Southee), and not a lot of quality to support them (Henry is decent and may improve with time, Craig is not good enough to be a test spinner, and Anderson is nothing special but a reasonable 5th bowler).
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
Bayliss is coming in at an exciting time for England. In Root, Ballance, Buttler and Stokes they have a core of young players who look set to be fixtures for up to a decade. They still have several issues to address - a 3rd quick, a spinner and Cook's long-term partner - but they're moving in the right direction. Great to see them playing some much more entertaining cricket in this Test.
Gav
Guest
Possibly so. I'm sure the handling of the Peterson debacle has something to do with 'Strauss bashing'