Jason Gillespie decided to step down from his role as Pakistan's red-ball coach after not being consulted on the selection of the national squad for the upcoming two-Test series in South Africa.

 A well-informed source, familiar with the developments, revealed that some officials in the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had created a difficult environment for Gillespie, who just a month ago had even been offered the job of head coach of the white-ball squad  "Circumstances were created to make the former Australian player feel alienated in major decisions about the team," the source said.

 "First despite his request the board didn't renew the contract of high performance coach Tim Nielsen and then the Test squad for the SA series was announced without consulting him," he added.

 The source said that while Gillespie was aware that the board had stripped him of say in the selection matters, he expected as head coach, he would be consulted by the selectors in the selection of any series.

 "Gillespie was also not happy that while refusing to renew contract of Nielsen whom he had recommended the board preferred to bring in Shahid Aslam from the national cricket academy as a coach into the support staff on recommendation of interim white ball head coach and senior selector Aaqib Javed,” the source added.

 He said that in recent weeks, Gillespie's calls were not being regularly answered by some officials, which irked him. This was particularly frustrating as he had agreed to serve as interim coach for the white-ball series in Australia, where Pakistan won the ODI series for the first time since 2002.