Yorkshire head coach Jason Gillespie has insisted that he will not be taking up a position with Australia.
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Gillespie explained that his preference to remain with Yorkshire is in part because he is unwilling to travel for long periods away from his family – as an worldwide coach must.
However, Gillespie rubbished those reports and said that he is staying with Yorkshire, whom he has helped lead to back-to-back County Championships.
Gillespie met with Darren Lehmann, the Australia head coach who is in the United Kingdom for ICC Cricket Committee meetings, at Headingley over the weekend, where Lehmann gauged the interest of his former team-mate.
“I said thanks for the chat and I would get back to Darren the next day”, Gillespie said.
He will inevitably still be linked with worldwide jobs that come up (last year he was close to becoming England head coach before the role went to his fellow countryman Trevor Bayliss), but he stressed last night that his focus is firmly on Yorkshire.
Commenting on the Australian bowling coach position, Gillespie admitted: “I don’t want to be pigeon-holed as a bowling coach; I think I’ve got more to offer”.
“What you can’t hide from is that in global cricket, there’s a lot of travel”.
But former Australia fast bowler Gillespie now claims no job offer was made by Cricket Australia and he has contacted Lehmann to inform him he will not be applying for one if it was.
“I’m not applying for any worldwide cricket roles”.
Australia, the top-ranked Test side, have been without a full-time bowling coach since the departure of Craig McDermott following the conclusion of the World Twenty20 last month.
Gillespie, who has been allowed two months off during the County off-season to coach the Adelaide Strikers in Australia’s Big Bash League, added that he was delighted with his assignments at hand and would consider a move only when the time was apt.
“There is still a lot to do at Yorkshire and I exclusively want to concentrate on helping this team win cricket matches”, Gillespie told Yorkshire’s official website last month.
However, Gillespie has always insisted he is happy with Yorkshire and he confirmed he was concerned about the time away from his family that an global role would entail.
“It’s well known I have a young family and the consideration is do I want to be away from home for 250-plus nights a year?”
“I’m a young coach and I’m still learning a lot”.
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“I informed him that I’m not going to put my name forward or apply for a role at Cricket Australia so we can end all the speculation there and then, right now”.
