Christopher Pyne: Since when do players get to pick the Australian cricket coach?
Justin Langer took on a poisoned chalice when he became Australian cricket coach in 2018 and he has been treated extraordinarily poorly, writes Christopher Pyne.
Opinion
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‘Something is rotten in the state of Denmark”. So spoke Marcellus in Act I Scene IV of Hamlet, written by The Bard, William Shakespeare.
The verse could equally apply to cricket in Australia.
On Saturday, Justin Langer resigned as head coach of the Australian cricket team.
Does anybody remember what state our team was in when Langer agreed to accept the poisoned chalice that seems to go with having anything to do with Cricket Australia?
Three players had just been eviscerated by the tawdry “Sandpapergate” drama.
That was the scandal in South Africa in which Australian players Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft were caught using sandpaper to rough up one side of the ball in order to make it swing in flight.
Smith and Warner were the captain and vice-captain!
All three were stood down from their roles and despite having nothing to do with it, South Australia’s own Darren Lehmann resigned as head coach. I assume out of embarrassment that such a thing had happened on his watch.
They have done their time – and Smith and Warner are now back in the team. Fair enough.
Langer took over as coach when Australia was being lampooned globally as a disgraceful bunch of cheats. Us! Cricket is our national game!
Former prime minister John Howard once described being captain of the Australian cricket team as being the most important job in the nation.
Even more important than being Prime Minister!
Tim Paine also accepted a poisoned chalice when he took over as captain. It was the lowest ebb of Australian cricket since Trevor Chappell bowled the underarm ball to New Zealand’s Brian McKechnie in the final of the World Series Cup in 1981.
Back then, people’s mouths hung open in shock that such a thing could have happened. Once done, it could not be undone.
The ramifications are still felt today. Don’t ever get into an argument with our friends across the ditch about cricket ethics. It’s not pretty.
In the maelstrom of 2018, Langer put his hand up and took on a role that Cricket Australia couldn’t give away. Everyone felt that he was taking one for the team, as it were.
Fast forward to 2022. What have Langer and his players achieved?
In the past few months alone, Australia has won the T20 World Cup and comprehensively defeated the English in the Ashes.
It wasn’t the whitewash of 5-0 that last occurred coincidentally when Langer was playing, but it was 4-0, which was still quite remarkable.
This team was a stand-up comedian’s easiest gag four years ago! Now, we stand astride world cricket as the acknowledged team to beat once again.
So, how is it that Langer has decided to pull the pin?
It appears from media reports that he was not universally loved by the players.
Cue, record scratch.
What? Who cares?
Apparently Langer has an intense coaching style. And this is a problem because he wins?
Since when did the players get to decide who the coach will be? If it isn’t true, then the players should come out and say so.
The more fundamental question is: Why does Cricket Australia routinely create these messes of its own making? The shenanigans that bedevil cricket in Australia make it look more like the storyline from a bad daytime soapie than a professional sport.
I half expect to see Blake and Krystle Carrington in the background of the next Cricket Australia media conference! The Langer fiasco is the latest in a series of unfortunate events.
It isn’t a one-off. I wish it were.
It was only in November that Paine resigned as captain in the wake of a scandal about lewd text messages that had its origins in 2017.
As that story broke away from Cricket Australia like a runaway train, it emerged that he had been the subject of an investigation about this matter by Cricket Australia in 2018.
The investigation concluded that he should not be barred from being captain of the Australian cricket team.
When the going got tough, Cricket Australia failed to adequately defend either the actions of the then-board in 2018 or its captain – and Paine went.
So, what’s wrong with Cricket Australia? I know members of the board and they are smart, articulate and able people.
Is there a problem with the board when they all sit down together?
I don’t know. I merely pose the question.
There needs to be a thorough soul-searching by Cricket Australia about how they are running cricket.
The phrase “It’s just not cricket” is part of our national lexicon. It became a popular expression to describe something that was a bit “off”, that wasn’t quit right, because cricket was seen to be above reproach.
You would be hard pressed to use it in such a way these days. Unless things change, I imagine it will go out of use.
That’s a sad reflection on the game we love. As we have again seen with treatment of Justin Langer.
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