Usman Khawaja defends YouTube video after backlash from former teammates
Some teammates are not thrilled with Usman Khawaja’s forthright comments about their behaviour but the message was carefully crafted.
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Usman Khawaja has urged critics to “watch the entire video’’ after ruffling the feathers of teammates with his defence of Justin Langer.
Khawaja this week surprised the cricket world – and some of his former Test teammates – by supporting Langer with whom he previously had a complex, intense and sometimes prickly relationship.
Langer has been under fire for his intensity which has disturbed portions of the playing group.
“How do you think JL feels?’’ Khawaja said on his You Tube channel.
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“He probably feels like the guys in the team are stabbing him in the back and that’s what it looks like and that’s why it’s so disappointing. It’s actually a really bad look. This is something the group needs to sort out ASAP.’’
It is known that some players were not impressed by Khawaja’s stance.
“To get the full context you should watch the entire video,’’ Khawaja told News Corp, hinting that his view was more balanced than “backstabbing’’ headlines suggested.
Khawaja’s urging for players to be upfront with Langer needed no justification because, occasionally to his own detriment, Khawaja was famously direct with the Australian mentor.
The relationship between Khawaja and Langer was one of the most intriguing elements of The Test documentary which followed the Australian team in 2018 and 2019.
Khawaja spoke about how the squad was intimidated by Langer and “walking on eggshells.”
Khawaja was axed during the 2019 Ashes but claims he built a stronger relationship with Langer after speaking his mind.
Khawaja’s directness has triggered rises and falls in his lengthy career.
Australia consistently left him out of leadership positions and workshops where he was sometimes overlooked for players with inferior records like Travis Head and Mitchell Marsh.
But in Queensland he is regarded as an exceptional leader, having guided the Bulls to a Sheffield Shield victory last summer.
One of the reasons why potential future Test captain Marnus Labuschagne is having trouble getting leadership experience in Queensland is that Khawaja is so highly as a Bulls skipper.
It is two years this week since Khawaja played the last of his 44 Tests but despite being 34 he cannot be discounted from Test selection against England this summer.
Australia has named only three specialist batsmen in its contract list and any batsman who strikes form in the early Sheffield Shield rounds will be considered for a Test promotion.
‘STABBED IN THE BACK’: ORIGINAL KHAWAJA STATEMENT
- Robert Craddock and Peter Lalor
Usman Khawaja says he is disappointed players have not stood up for Justin Langer and that the coach must feel like he has been stabbed in the back.
The former top order batsman, since dropped, says the perception he is not in the side because he clashed with Langer is wrong and that the coach deserves to see out the T20 World Cup and Ashes.
“The issue is there is something going on with the Australian team, with the players and with Justin Langer,” he said in a YouTube broadcast.
“Unfortunately he was in a pretty bad Bangladesh and West Indies tour, which I think was not entirely his fault since the majority of the team wasn’t there. I think it’s pretty harsh to judge him on the last two series.
“How do you think JL feels, he probably feels like the guys in the team are stabbing him in the back, and that’s what it looks like and that’s why it is so disappointing. It’s actually a really bad look. This is something that the group needs to sort out ASAP.
“What’s my verdict? There is something there, I’ve mentioned it before, a lot of things stem from JL wearing his emotions on his sleeve and things going up and down. He’s the one that rides it and I think that puts the players off a little bit, that’s where these chats, talks and everything that is going on stem from.
“Justin knows that, I am sure he is going to do his best to be more approachable, to sort this issue out, there is no player who is perfect and no coach who is perfect.
“I have no doubt that he is going to go out and work on these things.”
Khawaja is highlighted in two confrontations with Langer during recent years but denies that is why he is not in the side.
“I get asked this question all the time. People see the series on Amazon Prime … because he is out of the team because of Justin Langer. Let me stop right there. My relationship with Justin Langer is really good. To be honest, I still text him to this day,” he said.
“People think I got dropped because I stood up to him and all these other things. It was actually quite the opposite. I feel like I became closer to him because we had some honest and open conversations.
“I got dropped for the Ashes. There were two people who dropped me. Trevor Hohns and JL. It was not just JL.
“I don’t think I should have been dropped. but hey, cricket is a funny game. Unfortunately selection is a part of the game.
“Do I believe I should have been there the last couple of years? Was I one of the best top six batsmen? In my heart, yes, but I don’t select the teams.
“It is water off a duck’s back.’’
Khawaja, who has been criticised for his laid back approach, agreed the coach is volatile.
“He is a very passionate person, he loves Australian cricket, wants the best for everyone and is driven by winning and winning the right way,” he said.
“All the things he brought in after sandpapergate were focused on those things. One thing that keeps coming up with him is his emotions. Yes, the man wears his heart on his sleeve. He can be very emotional. It is probably his one downside. His greatest weakness is his emotions.
“He rides it high and rides it low. But that is only because he is passionate. Unfortunately that is probably one thing that is letting him down most, but it comes from a very good place.
“And he knows it. He knows he needs to improve. International cricket is a tough place. Having your emotions tested from time to time. It is just going to happen.”
Khawaja says the players need to be more upfront with the coach.
“The more important and disappointing thing is that the players have not stood up and chatted to JL about this a long time ago,” he said.
“Things are still coming out. I know how these things happen. Players don’t talk to someone about it. They discuss it between themselves. Either someone is going out in the media and telling them what is going or they are telling their managers and they are telling the media That’s how these things get out.
“There is a leak there but there is no point trying to find figure out who or when or what, because this has been going on in cricket since I was playing and long before then, so there is no point worrying about that.’’
Khawaja believes Cricket Australia should stand by Langer.
“What I think should happen is Justin deserves the opportunity to coach the Australian team in the World Cup, he deserves the opportunity to coach Australia in the Ashes and after all that, if the team is not gelling that is when you look at things and say maybe we need to change something,” he said.
“Just like you would with a player, give him as many opportunity you can, which doesn’t always happen, but your best players are your best players, your best coach is your best coach. He was your best coach three years ago, things don’t change really too much, now he needs to have more opportunity and if things are still not right, then you might try to do something.
“Let’s get some perspective here, it’s not always 100 per cent the players fault, the guys aren’t performing then the players need to take ownership at some stage, the guys have to perform better, at the end of the day it is not just one person.”--
Paine’s frustration after Langer dressing room leaks
Test captain Tim Paine says there have been robust discussions in the past week following what he termed disappointing leaks from the dressing room, but the leadership group was committed to a positive World Cup and Ashes campaign under embattled coach Justin Langer.
Paine said it had been a tough week after historical issues with Langer’s personality came to the surface, but too many of the side’s failings have been pinned on the coach alone.
He confirmed exclusive reports in The Australian of high-level talks, saying he, Pat Cummins and Aaron Finch, along with Cricket Australia chief executive Nick Hockley and chairman Earl Eddings had been involved in “robust conversations”.
Paine hosts a radio program on SEN in Hobart with Richmond player Jack Riewoldt on Friday mornings.
“There’s no hiding from it, it’s been a tough week, certainly a lot tougher for Justin Langer than for anyone else,” he said.
“For a story out of Bangladesh out of an argument with an in-house journo and for it to open up a lot of old wounds in the media, albeit some have certainly been leaked from what we think is inside is disappointing.”
“At the end of the day we’ve had discussions, the stuff that was reported wasn’t anything new, this is stuff that’s been dragged up from an Ashes series two or three years ago.”
Paine said that Langer was not the only one to blame for the situation. Australia continued a poor streak in T20 cricket with losses to Bangladesh and the West Indies in recent times and was beaten by India in the summer’s Test series.
“We’ve had ongoing discussions with JL, JL’s had ongoing discussions with me and the players about us always wanting to get better and it’s been a bit of a shame this week that a lot of the failings have been pinned on JL,” he said.
“That’s certainly not the case, we haven’t lived up to our own standards on the field, we haven’t won enough games of cricket and that’s put us all under pressure. But that’s the world we live in, we are playing professional sport. You are judged really harshly when you don’t win.
“We’ve had a rough trot with white-ball cricket, the red-ball team hasn’t been playing, so there has been a lot of sitting around, a lot of chatting, we have had some robust conversations among our leaders the last few days and we are really looking forward to the next six months with JL. We are looking forward to the World Cup and we are looking forward to the Ashes. “
The Australian revealed on Thursday that talks were taking place between cricket chiefs and team leaders on the issue.
“I have to be in there, I am the captain of the team,” Paine said. “I have to be in there giving my thoughts, my players’ thoughts. We have to be bouncing things around.
“It is a high-performing environment and you have to be looking for ways to get better, whether that’s through my leadership, whether that’s through Justin’s leadership, whether that’s through Nick Hockley or Earl Eddings, we are all on the same page, we are all trying to get better. We want to make Australian cricket great as it always was, we want to be the best team in the world and to do that we have to have some rough and robust conversations and we’ve certainly done that as a senior group in the last 24-48 hours and we’ve come out of it really pumped about what’s ahead of us in the next six months.”
The situation has taken its toll on Langer, who is in another quarantine following the recent tours.
“Its certainly been a difficult week for him, if you could imagine someone sitting in a room for 14 days reading this sort of stuff coming out all the time, it would have been bloody difficult,” he said.
“It was important that myself, Aaron Finch, Pat Cummins and the leaders of Australian cricket got around him, discussed things that needed to be discussed and got around him and supported him and helped him to move forward.
“The last few days we’ve been able to galvanise around him, to have some really robust discussions on where we want to take this cricket team, what we expect of him and what he expects of us. The World Cup T20 and the Ashes are probably two of the biggest things any Australian cricketer or a coach gets to be a part of and we are all on the same page and really excited.”
AUSTRALIA IN CRISIS TALKS TO BROKER LANGER PEACE DEAL
Australia In Crisis Talks To Broker Langer Peace Deal
Members of Cricket Australia’s board and executive have intervened directly to broker an understanding between players and coach Justin Langer after the situation reached crisis level in recent weeks.
The Australian understands that cricket chiefs have begun to speak to senior players, with CA chairman Earl Eddings and chief executive Nick Hockley among those who talked to the leadership group on Wednesday night.
The goal is to ensure that the ill will of recent times is dealt with before the World Cup and the Ashes with the organisation determined that Langer will see out his contract, which expires next year.
Secrecy surrounds the phone hook-ups, but The Australian was told that the initial rounds have not included Langer.
The players and Langer had confronted each other recently with feedback via a performance review and Langer had promised to work on a more positive approach around the team.
The meeting on the Gold Coast recently followed tensions during the India series as players and coaches lived in proximity without escape for months.
There is understood to be no plans to bring in a consultant with Cricket Australia confident this can be settled through frank talks.
Langer was, by all reports, controlled and calm on the recent tours of West Indies and Bangladesh, but a minor incident in the breakfast room sparked another round of condemnation and chatter.
The coaches and squad from those tours had been enduring a hard quarantine in Adelaide after the South Australian government backflipped on a deal to allow them to train and isolate at the same time.
The move did nothing to help the mood after losses in both T20 series, which culminated in one of Australia’s poorest performances in the last match against Bangladesh.
Nine members of the squad missed selection in the outfit named on Thursday for October’s T20 World Cup, but everybody’s mood will have been lifted by news that they could begin to train today after receiving an exemption from the state government.
Chief selector George Bailey defended the coach and said players needed to take some responsibility.
“Let’s not put this all on Justin, as a group if you look back over the last 12 months I don’t think the Australian cricket team, the T20 team or all formats, I don’t think we’ve quite played the best cricket or as good as we could have, we are constantly looking to get better on that front.
“JL took over at a pretty challenging period of time and since then there’s been a lot of permutations and change happen with the group and there’s no doubt that’s one of the reasons you periodically do full reviews of your set-up.
“There’s some new additions to that coaching staff that I think will be fantastic for the Australian cricket team, not only some great cricketing brains, but good leaders and coaches of people, so I don’t know how often we have to keep harping on that.”
Bailey lauded Langer’s achievement in rebuilding Australian cricket.
“Regardless of everything that has been said and written, the amount of respect JL has for what he has done and what he is continuing to try and do with cricket in general and with this team has been huge,” the 2013-14 Ashes star said.
“There’s no doubt there’s been a few blunders over the past 12 months but lets be realistic, there’s been some challenges encompassing that around travel and the tours and some of the results as well.
“I don’t think this is unique to JL, I think its most industries, certainly in high-performance in any organisation. Not just Justin, Aaron (Finch), Tim (Paine), all the leaders, all the staff are trying to improve and get better. Whether that is on the back of winning series or losing series there’s a culture of constant improvement.”
On Wednesday, Hockley put out a statement supporting Langer.
“Justin (Langer) has done an incredible job in raising the culture, values and behaviours of the Australian men’s team since he took on the role in 2018. His efforts have restored public faith in the national team which is a side all Australian’s can be incredibly proud of,” he said.
“He is contracted as head coach through to the middle of next year with the focus now on a successful T20 World Cup campaign followed by the home Ashes defence in what is one of the most anticipated series and summers of cricket in Australia for many years.
“Like many in the community and around the world the team has had an extremely disruptive and challenging 18 months during the pandemic. Despite those challenges the side has had great success in one-day, Test and T20 cricket, when all players were available.
“Justin, his coaching staff and the leaders within the team have an equally important part to play in ensuring a successful summer ahead for the Australian cricket team.”
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