At the time of his signing by Glamorgan, Jason Gillespie was the fifth highest wicket taker in Test cricket for Australia, with a career tally of 259 wickets from his 71 appearances for his country.
Dizzy had burst onto the Test scene during the 1997 Ashes series at Headingley with a haul of 7/37 and after overcoming a series of niggling injuries he was an ever-present in the Australian side from November 2002 through to the Ashes tour of England in 2005. During this time, Dizzy formed a potent partnership with Glenn McGrath, and blossomed into one half of Australia’s most statistically successful new ball pairing.
He also has a Test double-hundred to his name, having made an unbeaten 201 against Bangladesh at Chittagong in April 2006 after arriving in the middle as a night-watchman. This proved to also be his final appearance in Test cricket, and subsequently played for Yorkshire until 2007. He switched to Glamorgan for 2008 and appeared in thirteen Championship matches and the same number of one-day games, claiming 41 wickets in all formats with match-winning spells in the Championship against Essex and the One-Day League game with Warwickshire, besides helping to coach several of the Welsh county’s younger bowlers.
This was the start of a new direction in Dizzy’s career as he announced his retirement in September 2008 and coached for a while in Zimbabwe before becoming the bowling coach for Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League. In November 2011 Dizzy became 1st XI coach of Yorkshire – a post he held until 2016 when he returned to Australia and coached for a while in Papua New Guinea. He headed back to the UK in 2018 after being appointed Head Coach of Sussex. The great grandson of a Kamilaroi warrior, Dizzy occupies a special place in Australian cricket history as the first acknowledged Aboriginal Test cricketer.
GILLESPIE, Jason Neil
Born – Darlinghurst, Sydney, Australia, 19th April 1975
Best performances for Glamorgan:
In first-class cricket – 52 v Warwickshire at SWALEC Stadium, 2008; 4/32 v Essex at Garon Park, Southend-on-Sea, 2008.
In List A cricket – 9* v Gloucestershire at SWALEC Stadium, 2008; 5/13 v Warwickshire at SWALEC Stadium, 2008.
| M | I | NO | RUNS | AV | 100 | 50 | CT | ST | |
| First-class | 13 | 20 | 5 | 332 | 22.13 | – | 1 | 4 | – |
| List A | 13 | 8 | 7 | 50 | 50.00 | – | – | 3 | – |
| Balls | M | R | W | AV | 5wI | 10wM | |
| First-class | 2093 | 107 | 902 | 24 | 37.58 | – | – |
| List A | 504 | 12 | 345 | 17 | 20.29 | 1 | – |