Langer’s reinvention benefits all in Australian cricket

Justin Langer has learned to let go and with his team set to play off in the first T20 World Cup semi-final the results appear immediate.

Australia’s head coach Justin Langer finally has his own assistants in place.

Justin Langer has learned to let go and with his team set to play off in the first T20 World Cup semi-final tonight the results appear immediate.

What remains to be seen is whether JL 2.0 is a model which will take the Test and white ball sides into the next cycle and a new contract.

A win over Pakistan in Dubai and the final that follows will change perceptions which have already started to reset.

Players reported initial surprised and were taken back at the change of approach by the coach, but now seem comfortable with Langer’s letting go.

Famous for his attention to detail and obsessive approach, the coach has delegated responsibility to his deputies and was even a no show at one training session.

At others he has kept his distance.

Players have apparently found themselves looking around waiting to hear where they should be and what they should be doing in sessions that were once organised with military precision.

After realising Langer was leaving it to them they have got on with it as senior professional cricketers do. Most of these men have been running their own show for years, they know what they need from training and when they need it.

It seems to have dawned on the coach too that these are not shield cricket neophytes or the traumatised mob he inherited.

Catch all the ICC T20 World Cup action live & exclusive to Fox Cricket, available on Kayo. New to Kayo? Start your free trial today.

In games, the man who infamously kicked over the rubbish bin, sits as calm and content on the bench. At first it was unnerving, at length it seems to have become reassuring.

While the catalyst for the change was an honesty session following months of unseemly and mumbled misgivings what has been missed is that for the first time since taking the job in the wake of the 2018 crisis is that Langer finally has his own coaching staff in place.

He inherited Darren Lehmann’s assistants and for reasons known only to the high performance side of the business — and possibly the accountants — was not able to bring in his own men.

Being comfortable with your assistants is critical and essential to any head coach which is why there is almost always a wholesale cleaning out in any football or cricket team when there is change.

It is no reflection on the incumbents, but you want your own people around you not your predecessors.

In his brilliant book Damned United author David Peace tells an apocryphal tale about new Leeds manager Brian Clough dragging former manager Don Revie’s desk into the carpark and setting it on fire.

The disciplinarian and ubiquitous approach he took chafed as the team found its feet again. Teenagers became adults and bristled accordingly, the coach was slow to abandon the attitude he took during the rebuild but has now.

There had been times in the past six months when his job looked on the line but standing at the starting line for the World Cup finals things feel remarkably different.

In Andrew McDonald, Michael DiVenuto and Jeff Vaughan he has a trio of assistants he trusts to run training.

Langer’s future will be decided after the Ashes when his contract runs out, if he proves himself capable of an executive type coaching approach where he does not need to micro manage all three forms he may be around longer than his critics ever expected.

With Tim Paine expected to retire at the end of he summer some argue you might not want to change coach and captain at the same time.

Shane Warne has many provocative things to say but on Browny’s Podcast he told Jonathon Browne his sympathies lie with coach and not so much with his charges.

“Justin Langer was a wonderful cricketer for Australia, he’s a hard task master, hopefully the players and Justin have sorted their things out,” Warne said.

“I think Justin makes a good coach. But to me it shouldn’t have been out in the public like it was. I would have liked to have seen all that behind closed doors.

“Everyone ganged up on Justin I don’t think that was fair. If there’s any problems it should have been in house. You sit there and you sort it out. If you have to box on then box on behind closed doors. Sort it out but you always keep a united front publicly. I was a bit disappointed with how all that happened, but I think he’s the guy to do it.”

Warne makes a reasonable point. The players who were unhappy should have been brave enough to speak up, the coach has shown an ability to learn and adapt even if he can be reactionary in the moment.

An Ashes summer when he everyone is on top of each other day in day out may test the new approach, but it so far so good.

Imagine if the team and he had got to this place two years ago.