"Aaron Finch gave me some feedback and then I rang him" - Justin Langer on his final days as Australia head coach
Former Australia opening batter Justin Langer shed light on his final few months with the team as their head coach. He took over the Australian side in the aftermath of the ball-tampering scandal in 2018, but despite leading the Aussies to good things in his reign, he was a victim of a coup within the group.
Under his regime, Australia went on to win a bilateral ODI series in India, made it to the semi-finals of the 2019 ODI World Cup, and won the T20 World Cup 2021 against all odds. However, his style of coaching was deemed to be too intense, forcing the players and Cricket Australia (CA) to seek a replacement.
Langer was only handed a six-month extension to his contract, which ran until June 2022. Instead of choosing the marginal extension, he decided to resign from the post in February 2022 ahead of the tour of Pakistan.
"I've never said this publicly."
Justin Langer has finally opened up on his exit from the Australian cricket team.
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Noting that he held conversations with limited-overs skipper Aaron Finch after receiving some brutal feedback from him, Langer said in an interview with CODE Sports:
“(Aaron Finch) gave me some feedback and then I rang (him)“I said, ‘Finchy, mate, we’ve been captain and coach for four years!’. He goes, ‘Yeah, I know. I’ve been a bit of a pussy, haven’t I? I don’t like confrontation.’ What do you mean (by) confrontation, mate? Just tell me. So he did tell me, and I go, ‘Oh, yeah, cool."
Former all-rounder and assistant coach Andrew McDonald took charge of the team on an interim basis following Langer's departure. He was eventually given the head coach role on a full-time basis on the back of a successful tour of the subcontinent.
Noting that people often misinterpret his honesty as intensity and recalled a conversation he had with Test skipper Pat Cummins, saying:
"I spoke to Pat Cummins. He said to me about five times, ‘This might be brutally honest.’ I said, ‘Pat, there is nothing brutal about your feedback. What is brutal is I’m hearing it behind my back through the media or through sources’. No one’s telling me. Tell me. People say that I’m very intense, but they’re mistaking intensity with honesty.”
While Langer was linked with head coach roles for England and Sri Lanka earlier this year, he has not been involved in coaching since his resignation. His next career move seems to be in the broadcast arena, having signed a deal with Channel Seven in July 2022.
"Tim Paine was really clear with me. It was awesome" - Justin Langer
In the aftermath of the away tour of South Africa in 2018, Tim Paine and Langer had to endure a baptism by fire after then-captain Steve Smith received a suspension and coach Darren Lehmann proceeded to resign.
Read the full Justin Langer interview that has all of Australian cricket talking
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Paine and Langer have worked closely over the years to restore Australia's prowess in the longest format. Several new faces made their mark during the absence of David Warner and Smith. The Aussies narrowly failed to make it to the final of the inaugural edition of the World Test Championship (WTC).
Speaking about his relationship with the former Test skipper, he said:
“With Painey, we had this conversation, and he goes, ‘Mate I haven’t been able to sleep.’ I said, ‘Mate, just be 100 per cent honest with me’. “And I’m sitting there going, ‘You’re joking, awesome, no worries’. It was one-out-of-10, one-out-of-100. It was the easiest s*** to change. I’m going, ‘Thanks mate,’ and it was like a gift. Tim Paine was really clear with me. It was awesome."
Paine stepped down as captain of the Test side ahead of the 2022 Ashes series after his involvement in a text messaging scandal resurfaced.
Was Justin Langer unfairly treated by his players or were there two sides to the story? Let us know what you think.
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