FORMER Test fast bowler Jason Gillespie has been told he cannot complete a two-week coaching stint with Australia's budding quicks because he plays in the unsanctioned Indian Cricket League.
Gillespie was invited by the Australian team's bowling coach, Troy Cooley, to work with under-age pacemen at Brisbane's Centre of Excellence, but the move has been blocked by Cricket Australia, which sides with the influential Indian board in banishing so-called "rebel" ICL players from domestic and international cricket. The decision to bar the South Australian from the academy extends this hardline stance to coaching.
"I just found out that, because of my involvement in the ICL, that doesn't allow me to go and do any coaching there, which I think is quite unusual," said the 33-year-old who retired with 259 Test wickets, making him Australia's sixth-most successful bowler.
"It would have been two weeks working with under-age kids. Blokes are available to help and they don't want to use us.
"No one has actually given us a proper reason why we are banned, from playing or coaching. They just say it is unofficial cricket.
"I'm finding it quite funny more than anything. Why don't they just come out and say they are scared of India and be done with it? That would shut me up. Don't give us lipservice," added Gillespie, who has previously spoken out against India's treatment of ICL players.
The veteran of 71 Tests has represented the Ahmedabad Rockets in the Twenty20 tournament, signing onto a lucrative three-year deal after his retirement from state cricket last summer to avoid a confrontation with Cricket Australia. The ICL, owned by media mogul Subhash Chandra, pre-empted the Indian board's billion-dollar Indian Premier League and runs in direct competition with it.
A Cricket Australia spokesman denied the decision not to extend a coaching job to Gillespie was influenced by India. "It is a common view among all ICC nations that we don't support unofficial competitions," said Cricket Australia's general manager of public affairs, Peter Young.
"Where unofficial competitions recruit players from our stables it transfers value out of official cricket into other places, including into the pockets of private entrepreneurs. Based on that principle, we didn't believe it was appropriate to go ahead with a coaching offer.
"Where a player is involved in an unofficial competition, they are unable to support our cricket. It is the same as it was back in the early '70s with value being transferred out of community-owned cricket and into privately owned cricket."
Gillespie intends to return to Adelaide's grade competition after Christmas, which is one of the few places he is still eligible to play. He will return to India for the next ICL event, in March.