Justin Langer quits: The contenders to be next Australian cricket coach
One of the the contenders to replace Justin Langer coached Australia’s greatest rival. And he looms as a dark horse to leapfrog the current interim coach.
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Andrew McDonald will get a flying start to be new Australian coach but Trevor Bayliss may yet finish as the man with the wind in his sails.
McDonald has been confirmed as interim coach for next month’s historic tour of Pakistan following Langer’s brutal departure, with a decision on the permanent replacement looking like a three-horse race.
Langer’s two senior assistants McDonald and Michael Di Venuto work well together and have provided, over the past six months, the relaxed environment players have been agitating for.
Either would be ready to step up as a head coach if asked.
McDonald had told people he wasn’t keen on the top job, but that stance might change if it were offered to him. Perhaps the easiest move would be to appoint the former Australian all-rounder as coach with Di Venuto as his assistant and someone who could relieve him on certain tours.
However, former England mentor Bayliss is also in the mix as a proven international coach who shares a close relationship with many in the team.
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It appears Cricket Australia has moved away from the idea of formally splitting the coaching roles across different formats, and the appointment of an overall head coach is likely.
McDonald, Bayliss and Di Venuto all bring the attributes players have been seeking – coaches which are happy to take a back seat and play a support role in empowering senior players to run the team.
Bayliss is currently without an IPL deal and Cricket Australia powerbrokers wouldn’t be doing their job if they didn’t approach the man England hired to revolutionise its white ball program – culminating in the 2019 ODI World Cup triumph on home soil.
Given the quality of his CV, the fact Bayliss is from NSW shouldn’t work against him, but it could, because there is a paranoia from some at Cricket Australia that powerbrokers from the state are running the game.
The fact is Bayliss is arguably the best credentialed coach on the market and he has previously coached Australia’s Twenty20 team – as a relief for Darren Lehmann during his tenure.
Ricky Ponting made an intriguing comment on ABC Radio on Saturday, saying that Langer suspected that as well as a handful of players who didn’t like his style, “a couple of other staff around the team haven’t entirely loved the way he has gone about it.”
Ponting didn’t name who those members of staff are, but reports over recent months have suggested that there had been fears McDonald and Di Venuto might quit their posts had Langer been reappointed.
McDonald and Di Venuto have been an instrumental part of the success Australia has had over the past six months, but while Cricket Australia have bowed to player power in removing Langer, they don’t necessarily have to appoint a players’ favourite to replace him.
Ponting is always at the top of any board’s wish list for international coaches, but Cricket Australia can forget about that pipe dream after he slammed their treatment of his close friend, Langer as “embarrassing”.
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