Cricket Australia to decide Langer’s fate at critical board meeting

Cricket Australia has denied Justin Langer was asked to reapply for his job or that he became angry in a meeting about extending his tenure.

Justin Langer is seeking a multi-year extension of his contract to coach Australia

Australian men may still be feeling the warm glow of an Ashes and Twenty20 World Cup victory but coach Justin Langer could be out of a job by Friday night.

If that happens, assistant Andrew McDonald will then be the man most likely to lead the team to Pakistan at month’s end.

Langer’s fate will be decided at what will be one of the most important board meetings in Cricket Australia’s recent history.

It is unlikely he would be offered a four-year deal to mirror the first, with talk of a two-year extension, but there is no certainty he will be offered any new deal.

The board will hear a presentation from manager of teams Ben Oliver on Langer’s future.

It will also be presented with a list of five candidates short-listed to take over the role of chair, which was vacated by Earl Eddings on the eve of the last AGM.

The Australian revealed recently that Tony Shepherd, John McMurtrie, John Gillam and director Lachie Henderson were on the short list.

It can be further revealed that a fifth candidate, University of Queensland chancellor Peter Varghese, is also on the list.

The fraught future of the Australian head coaching position will presumably take precedent at the meeting.

Langer is in an invidious position and one that is more complicated than meets the eye.

A beloved character who devotes himself to the game, he is living in exile from his family in Perth and has to serve two weeks’ quarantine when the borders open up. If he retains his job he will have a few days with his wife and daughters before the side leaves for a Test and white-ball series in Pakistan around February 23.

Final details of quarantines and host venues are yet to be signed off on the tour, nor has the role of coach.

If Langer’s contract is not extended, he will not lead the team to Pakistan. But McDonald has been taking a more active role in day-to-day coaching in recent months and the players are confident he can perform the role. Oliver and chief executive Nick Hockley met individually with white-ball captain Aaron Finch in Melbourne, Test skipper Pat Cummins in Sydney and then Langer on Friday before the BBL final in Melbourne.

The two captains had expressed their dissatisfaction with the coach’s style in a meeting with Hockley and Eddings in August.

Cummins was vice-captain at that point and Tim Paine was part of the meeting in which grievances about his coaching style were aired.

Eddings defended Langer and the players were told to speak to the coach, who acknowledged their concerns and took a more hands-off role.

There is broad support outside the team for Langer, who was charged initially with rescuing Australian men’s cricket after the disaster of the sandpaper scandal and then asked to deliver results.

The fact he has accepted a back-seat role when that was requested of him more recently makes it difficult to understand what more he can do, however the relationship between the coach and captains is critical.

It is hard to see Langer being offered another four-year term and a two-year extension could be a compromise acceptable to him and the organisation. Where the playing group stands is difficult to establish but it can be safely assumed they want change.

Sensitivities around the issue were highlighted when Cricket Australia denied elements of a story published by Fox Cricket about the Friday meeting between Langer, Hockley and Oliver.

“We reject outright the assertion that the meeting was fiery or heated and that Justin was asked to reapply for his job,” it said.

“Justin has always been contracted as head coach through to the middle of this year and we have consistently maintained that discussions around the future of the role would commence following the conclusion of the men’s Ashes series.

“Friday’s meeting was the first time that we had the opportunity to meet together in person, reflect on the team’s success and discuss the road ahead.

“We will continue with this process and make an announcement once it is complete.”

Fox Sports stood by their story, which contained a lot of inside ­detail from the meeting between the three.

Richard Freudenstein is acting chair of the board since Eddings’ departure and will lead Friday’s meeting. At the time of his appointment, Cricket Australia said it hoped to have a replacement before the end of the year.

That process hit a snag when the states rejected the suggestion that sitting director Henderson assume the role and insisted that the “rigorous process” promised be adhered to and more candidates were approached around Christmas.

Shepherd has a gold-plated sport, politics and business background, McMurtrie is still connected with the Adelaide club he played first grade for and has just retired from a highly successful international business career, leaving him with time to devote to the role. Henderson and Gillam also have excellent cricket and business pedigrees.

Varghese was a public servant for over three decades who served as secretary of DFAT and delivered a strategic paper for the Abbott Government in 2018, setting out the blueprint to transform Australia’s economic relationship with India.