Justin Langer faces challenges never faced before by an Australia coach but has the courage to see it through, writes Robert Craddock
LIKE his mentor John Buchanan, Justin Langer doesn’t mind a motivational poster but unlike the former Australia cricket coach, Langer faces challenges unlike any the game has seen.
Opinion
Don't miss out on the headlines from Opinion. Followed categories will be added to My News.
SOMETIMES cricket eras can be summed up by strange things - like the reaction to dressing room signs.
Ask John Buchanan and Justin Langer.
The Melbourne Cup came at a good time for Langer because it created a diversion for the ridicule he copped for a publicised dressing room sign in Perth which “elite honesty.’’
WARNE: FIVE RULES TO MAKE CRICKET GREAT AGAIN
LIVE BLOG: AUSSIES TAKE ON SOUTH AFRICA IN ADELAIDE
MATCH-UP: SMITH v WARNER IN SYDNEY GRADE CRICKET
It was his first match on Australian soil as coach.
Buchanan, one of Langer’s greatest admirers and key mentors, also had the “sign vibe’’ in his first game as Australian coach in the 1999 Test against Pakistan at the Gabba.
Wanting to spur his team from good to great Buchanan grabbed some butcher’s paper and crafted a dressing room sign saying “Today is the first Test of our journey on the road the Invincibles. Let’s make the ride enjoyable and attainable.’’
Steve Waugh initially cringed when he saw it, feeling it was a bit cheeky to use the title given to Don Bradman’s 1948 Ashes side.
But guess what? The team surged to an extraordinary 16-Test winning streak and the Invincibles theme grew by the match.
Australia were running so hot at the time, if Buchanan had erected a sign saying “Let’s go beyond Mars’’ he would have been applauded for looking not simply outside the square but the very solar system in which we live.
They were the days before social media got serious and the audience did not answer back.
Like Langer, Buchanan was a shamelessly left-field thinker and copped the occasional barb because of it but the chorus of disapproval never lasted long because Australia just kept winning.
Buchanan freshened up his team in all sorts of quirky ways like the day when he took them rowing on the Yarra River in Melbourne and several of them fell out of the boat as it almost capsized.
That incident barely made the news but can you imagine what the world would make of that if it was on the Torrens in Adelaide this week and, say, Aaron Finch was the man taking a bath?
Anyone for a leaky boat headline?
Langer has quickly learnt that every tangential step he takes is open to enormous public scrutiny.
Winning justifies everything. Losing brings everything into question.
That’s regrettable because Langer’s quirky, engaging openness has a way of making fans feel they are part of his and his team’s journey.
Most modern sports coaches simply adopt the policy of hiding everything behind a stony-face and a sombre delivery.
Langer, to his credit, is happy to be vulnerable and expose some inner thoughts.
It takes far more courage than he will be given credit for.
Already in the job he had candidly admitted to having sleepless nights, that he has no idea who his best top six batsmen were and that he is worried about the technique of modern batsmen.
That’s good. It takes the fans on his journey. Hopefully he will stay true to who and what he is but it will take courage.
Langer will have to look deep inside himself for the courage to go the four-year journey of his period as national coach.
But the theme of his career as a batsmen was that when people thought he was down and dusted he always found a way to fight back.
He is made of stern stuff and he will need to be during what shapes as a testing period for Australian cricket.
Originally published as Justin Langer faces challenges never faced before by an Australia coach but has the courage to see it through, writes Robert Craddock
McGrath’s key fear for Test cricket amid T20 avalanche
Glenn McGrath is worried Test cricket could fade into obscurity then oblivion. The iconic fast bowler great chats to DANIEL CHERNY about the future of the sport and what needs to be done.
Inside the messy battle to stop Pucovski being a one-Test wonder
A panel of concussion experts will convene next month to rule on Will Pucovski’s cricket future. It’s possible he may never play again, but that’s just the start of explaining his complicated battle.