Ashes 2022: Shane Warne leads calls for retention of Justin Langer as Aussie cricket coach
If Justin Langer isn't given the nod as Australian coach, a former Test selector believes England should approach him to replace Chris Silverwood.
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Shane Warne and Mark Waugh have called on Cricket Australia to go against the temperature of players and reappoint Justin Langer as coach.
Administrators have vowed to make a determination on Langer’s future at the conclusion of this series, but expectations have risen over recent weeks that he will not have his contract renewed.
Friend and former teammate Adam Gilchrist said it was conspicuous how little “acknowledgement” Langer appears to have been given by players and administrators for his contribution to Australia’s golden march to a Twenty20 World Cup and Ashes triumph.
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Langer’s predecessor Darren Lehmann believes it’s time for the former opener to move on and that a four-year term is enough for a coach.
Former England captain Michael Vaughan said “player power” had become too prevalent in world cricket and said Langer’s style of keeping his players “on edge” should appeal to ECB bosses even if Australia want him gone.
Ex-teammate and Fox Cricket expert Warne said coaching was not a popularity contest and believes Langer should be given a new deal.
“(Has he) made the players better, helped Australian cricket? I think Justin Langer gets a tick on all of that,” Warne said on Fox.
“He’s just won an Ashes series, he’s just won a T20 World Cup. If the players don’t like him or don’t want him there, I thought that was the conversation that’s (already) been had.
“It seems to me that Australia have turned it around a little bit. The cricket they’ve played here, the cricket they played in the T20 World Cup.
“I don’t know what everyone is waiting for. He should be signed, in my opinion, because he’s done such a good job.
“We’re not inside the dressing room, so we don’t know all the ins and outs with the players. But the only way you can judge a coach is from the performances and has Australian cricket got better.
“Is the standard of cricket better domestically? There’s probably three or four players outside of this squad now that could all play, and that wasn’t there a couple of years ago.
“For me, I don’t know what they’re waiting for.”
Former Australian selector Waugh said there would be “something wrong” if Langer is sacked and England’s coach Chris Silverwood keeps his job – but he did say Cricket Australia had to split the coaching roles into red ball and white ball.
“I thought coaching was all about success, win-loss. That’s what you base a coach’s success on, so I would’ve thought winning the T20 World Cup and then the Ashes either 4-0, 3-0 or 3-1 … that’s a pretty good resume,” Waugh said on Fox.
“I reckon if he doesn’t get the Australian job he’ll get the English job. He’d be a shoe-in there, Justin Langer. They might (approach him now).
“If Justin Langer gets sacked and (Chris) Silverwood doesn’t there’s something wrong.”
Warne did acknowledge that coaches have a “shelf life” where their voice is no longer being heard, but said a popularity poll of Langer in the dressing room shouldn’t be used as the marker by CA.
“Is the coach there to be liked? I wouldn’t have thought so,” said Warne.
“I think the coach should be there (to be) respected (in) his role. If some of the players don’t like you I think that’s OK. You’re not there to make friends.”
Crash: Wounds of Langer player revolt never healed
- Robert Craddock
Australian cricket powerbrokers are mulling over this question … have their players done enough to earn the right to choose their coach?
Not all of them agree the answer is yes but trying to resist player sentiment is like trying to hold back a rising tide which is why the player push to have Trevor Bayliss replace Justin Langer is so significant.
Talk about men of contrasts and fire and ice … but more of that later.
The administrators will tell us this is very much a board decision but the truth is the players are likely to get the man they want.
Out of respect to Langer, Australia should sort out his future next week as soon as the final Ashes Test is over.
These things have a vibe about them and the strong suspicion is that the wounds of a player revolt against Langer last year have never properly healed and that the fifth Ashes Test could be his last on Australia soil or even the last of all.
Langer is contracted until June so he still has some white ball games and a three Test tour of Pakistan ahead — but all that is negotiable if he is not recontracted.
These are extraordinary times.
Since the player revolt Langer-coached Australian teams have lost just one game — a World T20 match against England — and Australia has stormed its way to T20 and Ashes glory.
Many coaches with that recent record would be walking into their bosses office, putting their feet on the table, lighting an imaginary cigar and arguing for a pay rise rather than trying to dodge the guillotine.
But in cricket and in sport once cracks appear between a coach and his players they rarely properly heal. It’s hard to uncrack a mirror.
If Bayliss gets the job it will be the continuation of what we might call the coaching correction syndrome where the soft spots of an Australian coach are compensated for in the qualities of the man who replaces him.
Australia has had seven national cricket coaches in 35 years.
The exceptional Bob Simpson held the job for 10 years from 1985 but — brilliant though he was — his blunt ways prompted Australia to go to the other end of the spectrum for a lighter touch with Geoff Marsh as his replacement.
Marsh, with a simple and hardworking style, won a World Cup in England in 1999 but Australia wanted more sophistication at a time when computers were coming into to the game so they again went from one of the scale to the other to plump for John Buchanan as their next choice.
A few years later, when Mickey Arthur came unstuck with Homeworkgate after trying to crack was he thought was a shoddy culture, Australia brought in Darren Lehmann because he was less officious and would lighten the mood.
When Australia’s culture fell away with sandpapergate Australia recruited Langer as a hard-nosed agent of change. He did his job but if Bayliss gets the job it will be another contrast because he is renowned for his steady temperament and cool disposition.
Cricket still struggles to acknowledge the full worth of coaches.
There is no Australian cricket coaching icon like say Jack Gibson in rugby league or Norm Smith in the AFL.
Why tasteless four-fingered salute won’t be repeated
It’s anyone’s guess what fate awaits England after the end of the Ashes in Hobart but this much is certain … they will not be given a four-fingered send-off.
This time four years ago Australia’s boisterous cricketing swagger hit an unsavoury peak when it decided to stick it to England one last time at the victory celebrations after a 4-0 Ashes series win was completed in Sydney.
Two giant statue-like fists were erected by marketeers at the Ashes presentation dais, one with four confetti-spewing fingers outstretched to honour Australia’s 4-0 win.
Another fist in English colours stayed clenched to remind the world the tourists had won nothing.
This summer, with the sports world becoming more mellow and united due to the ever-present stresses of Covid, there is a different vibe — one of sportsmanship and compassion — and mercifully so.
One Australian selector who watched the 2017-18 presentation on television expected to celebrate the moment.
Instead he switched off his television and went for a walk thinking “what on earth are we turning in to …?’’
Some players said the moment flashed past them on stage but when they spoke about it later regretted being prisoners of the kitsch trimmings.
A few months after the Sydney salute Australia was embroiled in the ball tampering scandal in South Africa which prompted a review of the way this country played its cricket.
These days, Australia is a lot less combative for a variety of reasons.
Pat Cummins, with a mantra of “calm but relentless’’, has brought a cooler, more restrained tone to the captaincy which is evidenced in dealings with rival players and umpires.
When match umpires in the SCG Test told Cummins “it’s getting dark … you will have to bowl spin’’ he simply nodded in an acceptance of a move which might have drawn a far sharper response from many of his predecessors as captain.
England skipper Joe Root has had a rugged tour and, after three half centuries in the first three Tests the pressure appears to be grinding him down.
But he has never lost his dignity and his status as a statesman of the game has been reflected in everything from saying “please’’ and “thank you’’ to net bowlers, to giving his gloves away to net watchers, to answering the relentless questions about his side’s poor form without any sense of resentment.
England have been poor this tour but there is respect, empathy and gratitude from Australia for their efforts to plough through a difficult tour.
England, who have been in and out of Covid bubbles for the past 18 months, know they cannot win by complaining about bubble life but the challenges of it have been relentless.
“Don’t underestimate the bubble effect on them,’’ said former Test quick and former English county coach Jason Gillespie.
“They are the country who have spent the most time in bubbles.
“It’s not an excuse but it is a reason. They have spent a lot of time in bubbles to keep the show on the road. People will say other people are doing it tougher and of course they are but it hasn’t been easy for them.’’
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