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What I saw is Australia is very much an 'old boys' club. A lot of the ex-players carry a huge amount of weight and what they say, a lot goes, and that was the disappointing thing.
Fitness is amplified in one-day cricket - fielding, running ones, twos, threes. Sometimes in an over you are running six twos. If you are not fit enough, you can't run those runs.
I get disappointed when players arrive and are not at peak condition. Ultimately that is the reflection of the set-up I run. Ultimately that is the reflection of me and my support staff.
It happens so quick. You lose a game; you lose another game; it's a World Cup; media scrutiny; public expectation, and then you almost go into sort of survival mode. We've all been there.
I've had a great time coaching teams in these various T20 tournaments but that involvement obviously only lasts for a finite period. I just felt I was too young to be doing what I was doing.
The backing I have received form the PCB is second to none. They have allowed me to do what I want to do for the best. I really think that we are on the right track. I am loving this Pakistan job.
It is important to challenge your major players. You need to keep them on their toes but there are ways of doing that. Sometimes you have to be a shoulder to cry on. You can't be constantly at them.
After my dismissal, I received nothing in writing from Cricket Australia, no contact, and no payment at all, not even of my basic leave pay, until I was forced to bring in lawyers to assist in the process.
I am changing the culture in this Pakistan environment and I am not interested in players doing just the bare minimum. I want players winning us games of cricket and pushing themselves to be the best they can be.
We are trying to create a culture of excellence. To create that culture has been tough. It hasn't been there in Pakistan cricket for a while - whether that is cultural or a product of the environment, I am not sure.
A good coach will come in ra, ra, ra and rejig the whole set-up. That might work for a year or 18 months but isn't sustainable. A great coach has the ability to get the best out of his players without the ra, ra, ra stuff.
I was always really worried about the conditions in India, especially with a group of young players. You can sit and you can tell players what it's like to play there, but until you've experienced it, you don't comprehend it.
I have always said we are going to play well and we going to play badly. And I have not got issues when people criticise as long as we don't play well. That's part and parcel of the game. I love it and that's how it should be.
Sometimes I look at myself and think: have I been too hard in terms of pushing and challenging the players? But I only think about that for five minutes and then I say I am doing okay because they need to be pushed and challenged.
PCB (Pakistan Cricket Board) is doing an unbelievable job in trying to resurrect international cricket. I just hope the World XI tour goes ahead and that will almost be the curtain raiser to, hopefully, get some international cricket back.
When I took charge of Pakistan, I stopped and had a look from the outside before making any judgement calls. I got used to the culture because I think that is so important. For you to move a team forward as a coach, you have to understand the culture.
When I lost the job with Cricket Australia, I almost felt I had unfinished business to do. I felt that my reputation with South Africa and internationally had been very good. And then you lose your coaching job, it is tough. It kept me three years out of it.
I think Pakistan was always a destination where it was hard to come and win. I was the coach of the South African team which came here in 2007. We won the Test and one-day series and that was a massive win and achievement because not many sides had come and won in Pakistan.
For Pakistan cricket to stay relevant and strong, the best players have to be available all the time - it's a challenge faced by everyone, but one that particularly relates to us because of our mainly amateur, pretty random, and certainly too thinly spread domestic structure that feeds the national team.
I had a meeting with Umar Akmal and discussed exactly where I thought he was. We are looking at the skillset that he brings to the Pakistan team. Obviously, he is a very intelligent player but he knows that he has to conform. He knows that he has got to pass the fitness standards that are required of him.
At the end of the day, when you go on to Google everything is about the way you were sacked when you were in charge of Australia. It doesn't mention the good things I did with South Africa or the good things I did in my first year with Australia when I brought in a lot of young players and gave them opportunities and tried to build a team.
I never wanted to launch legal action, but Cricket Australia simply left me no option. James Sutherland himself said that, to an extent, I had been made 'a scapegoat.' I find that a totally unfair basis to end my career. The damage to my reputation and career has been immense, which means the chances of me getting a senior job are that much less.