Gillespie slams South Australia hierarchy

Jason Gillespie has lashed out at the South Australian Cricket Association for speaking to the media about in-house problems with the team. The Adelaide Advertiser on Thursday reported that the Redbacks' performance - they are last on both the Pura Cup and Ford Ranger Cup tables - had prompted the SACA to have stern words with the captain Darren Lehmann and the coach Wayne Phillips.

The paper said the SACA chief executive Mike Deare and the high-performance director Rod Marsh were concerned with off-field behaviour, lack of team leadership, technical flaws in top-order batsmen, potential salary cap constraints and Mark Cosgrove's ongoing weight problems.

But Gillespie, who spearheaded the team's return to form with five wickets against Queensland today, said airing their dirty laundry in public was no way to handle the situation. "As a playing group, reading the things said in the press from people within the organisation, it's disappointing because you want support from your employers," Gillespie told AAP.

"You don't want people coming out and caning you, having a go at you. We're all moving in the one direction and I'd like to think they're supporting us. To come out publicly and have a go at us I think is the wrong way to go about it.

"Maybe their idea is let's put a rocket up them, but it doesn't work that way. If you've got an issue, come and talk to us privately, don't bring it out in the media, come out and give us support, say 'we're behind you 100 per cent guys'. Yesterday's press didn't show that.

"We can't win now because they'll say that's exactly what we want them to do, put a rocket up the guys and see if you perform, but guaranteed we weren't doing it for them, we want to do it for ourselves, our support staff and supporters."