Justin Langer fearful of cuts to budget caused by Covid fallout

Justin Langer says the COVID-19 pandemic has not yet hit home for cricket and he fears he will lose valuable resources when CA balances its books.

Australia’s coach Justin Langer watches his batsmen in the nets during a training session at the MCG in Melbourne on Sunday. Picture: AFP

Coach Justin Langer says the COVID-19 pandemic has not yet hit home for cricket and he fears he will lose valuable resources when Cricket Australia’s financial books are balanced after this series.

England is due to fly out for the Ashes next summer and before that the Aussies are plotting to win the World Test Championship at Lord’s and the Twenty20 World Cup in India.

But Langer is acutely aware that budget cuts are coming in a similar vein to the winter codes, which have shed dozens of full-time coaches as well as medical experts, recruiting staff and ­administrators, and enforced significant pay cuts on many ­survivors.

“Like other codes, because of the biosecurity and how strict it has been to get through this summer, and how important we all recognise it to be, I’m more nervous about what happens at the end of the year,” Langer said.

“When the numbers come through and the budgets come through and all that sort of stuff.”

Langer, who sits on the board of AFL club West Coast Eagles, watched league CEO Gillon ­McLachlan rip $63m out of the football department spending soft cap for the 2021 season.

Every club was forced to sack multiple assistant and development coaches as the industry contracted when the AFL slashed the soft cap from $9.7m per club to $6.2m.

Langer has spoken to senior AFL coaches on the best ways to streamline operations.

Football clubs have prioritised versatile employees who can perform multiple roles.

“We know what’s happening with the soft cap in the AFL, which I’m obviously closely related to, and we see what’s happened in the NRL,” Langer said.

“I talk to the coaches in the other codes through different ­forums and they’re all getting hit with it. I’m sure cricket’s not going to be immune to that, and I’m really hopeful that all the sacrifices and all the work that’s gone into this summer, there’s not too much of an impact. But I’m nervous that there will be.”

Langer and senior assistant coach Andrew McDonald are in charge of Australia’s men’s team, along with performance analyst Dene Hills. Bowling coaches Sridharan Sriram and Troy Cooley are considered important cogs in the series against India.

But in a sign of the changing times, McDonald is also head coach of franchises Rajasthan Royals and Birmingham Phoenix and skipped Australia’s white-ball tour of the UK in 2020 to fulfil his IPL commitments.

Australia’s batting coach Graeme Hick, who also coached Australia A against England Lions last year, was made redundant last year.