Australian cricket coach Justin Langer’s tenure will not be boring
NEW Australian cricket coach Justin Langer is a great admirer of Brisbane Broncos coach Wayne Bennett, who he met through former mentor and Queenslander John Buchanan.
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THIS much is certain about Justin Langer’s four-year reign as Australian cricket coach – it won’t be boring.
Langer’s appointment prompted me to re-read his motivational-autobiographical work Seeing The Sunrise which is filled with life lessons that have moulded his spiritual and tangential view of the world.
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Langer once had a crippling fear of heights but he conquered it when his grandfather took him to the top floor of a construction site and said “Justin, don’t look down, look up’’.
Langer had been a quivering, fearful wreck as he climbed to the top floor but looking up liberated his fears and set him free.
He claims the experience was not simply phobia-conquering but life-changing, as looking up, not down, became a metaphor for the way he wanted to live his life.
Langer is not afraid to share personal stories about himself which make him look vulnerable, such as the night he was drinking with Tom Moody in Brisbane and Moody asked “have you ever told your dad you loved him?’’
Langer, to his mild embarrassment, admitted he hadn’t but soon after went out and rang his father in Perth on a pay phone and did so.
Langer has met the Queen twice and conceded when he did so he stood “as erect as a tin soldier and the tingling down the back of my neck and spine was stronger than any I can remember’’.
When the Queen met Langer she looked him in the eye, shook his hand, and said “I am pleased to meet you’’ and he regularly tells this story to young players.
The message is that if it’s good enough for the Queen to look you in the eye and say “pleased to meet you’’ when she has shaken a million hands before yours, then it should be good enough for you to do the same to everyone you meet.
Langer had his own version of the worldwide best-selling book Tuesdays with Morrie, where he used to spend Tuesday afternoons playing golf with his grandfather and listening to stories about the Great Depression and World War II.
Rarely have a coach and player been more suited to each other than Langer and John Buchanan who, like Langer, loved peeping beyond traditional boundaries.
When Buchanan became coach of Australia, Langer was a battling fringe player averaging 33 after 24 Tests.
Seven years later, he retired with an average of 45 after a 105-Test career, with the coach having much to do with the rise of Langer’s career and his self-esteem.
It will be interesting to see whether Langer connects with any Australian players in the way Buchanan connected with him. If anyone could get the best out of the Marsh boys, Langer, who has known them since they were babies, would appear to be the man.
Langer is very close with Cameron Bancroft, who lied and cheated in the ball-tampering scandal in South Africa and may never be chosen again, so that has not been one of his mentoring triumphs.
Langer is a great admirer of Brisbane Broncos coach Wayne Bennett, who he met through Buchanan, particularly Bennett’s views on perseverance.
A favourite Bennett quote of Langer’s is: “So often we are so close to our objectives only to walk away.
“Burke and Wills died of thirst not knowing there was water over the next hill.’’
Certainly there will be plenty of thirsty times for Langer ahead.
Hopefully, there will be a decent drink at the end of them.
Originally published as Australian cricket coach Justin Langer’s tenure will not be boring