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Why time for Australian cricket coach Justin Langer could soon be up

Headshot of Steve Butler
Steve ButlerThe West Australian
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Australia coach Justin Langer’s contract expires in June.
Camera IconAustralia coach Justin Langer’s contract expires in June. Credit: Stu Forster/Getty Images

In any organisation, when the tail wags the dog you can prepare for the inevitable mange to set in.

But if, as has been widely speculated, Justin Langer feels the need to fall on his sword after winning the Ashes in dominant fashion on home soil, then I suspect a parasitic disease within Cricket Australia that is more than skin deep.

In the wake of the ball-tampering scandal in South Africa that delivered Langer the Australian cricket coach job in 2018, everything within the Australian Test team looks shiny and new under the broad-smiling leadership of recently-appointed captain Pat Cummins.

On the back of a T20 World Cup victory for Australia under Langer in November (a result even the nation’s optimists struggled to see coming) and the retention of the Ashes with victories in the first three lop-sided matches, surely everything should be rainbows and unicorns.

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Instead, the tattle around Langer’s imminent demise continues to fester, not least because those in key positions around him (read Cummins, for example) have failed to authoritatively back him to continue beyond his current contract, which expires in June.

Pat Cummins
Camera IconCaptain Pat Cummins has failed to back coach Justin Langer beyond his current contract. Credit: TheWest

The skipper said he wanted to simply savour collecting the Ashes urn after the Boxing Day Test win, rather than also throw his support behind Langer for the exceptional job he had done.

“I don’t think today is the day to speculate on that,” he said, just five days after Langer said he wanted to continue as Australian coach in all forms of the game.

Well, why not Pat? Clearly, if he was that way invested, it would not have been too difficult to say his coach deserved an extension for adapting himself in his role to underpin two magnificent competition victories in two forms of the game.

Langer, a widely-admired West Australian sporting champion, has often found ways to adapt to stay relevant in his chosen code. Most recently, that was evidenced in the notoriously hands-on coach’s decision to delegate more authority to his assistants, Andrew McDonald and Michael Di Venuto.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - JANUARY 02: Australian Head Coach Justin Langer looks on with Will Pucovski during an Australian nets session at Melbourne Cricket Ground on January 02, 2021 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Kelly Defina/Getty Images)
Camera IconJustin Langer recently delegated more authority to his assistants. Credit: Kelly Defina/Getty Images

A fierce competitor to match his straight-line approach to life, it now appears his reign may well be overwhelmed by modern sport’s reality of player power holding the whip hand when push really comes to shove. Many critics, me included, would say that is a softening of leadership that delegates too much responsibility into the wrong hands.

AFL greats Mick Malthouse and Kevin Sheedy were pretty decent coaches, to say the least. So was hockey legend Ric Charlesworth. Throw English Premier League icon Alex Ferguson in there, too.

None of them were soft touches. Imagine today’s pampered players finding their mojo under any of them? Good luck.

Late, great soccer commentator Les Murray penned a piece in 2017 that perfectly described the modern balance between coach and professional players as he assessed the fallout from Jose Mourinho’s departure from EPL club Chelsea.

FILE - JULY 31, 2017:  Australian soccer journalist, commentator and Football Hall of Fame member Les Murray has died at the age of 71. MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - DECEMBER 17:  Les Murray poses during the FFA Teams of the Decades announcements at Crown Towers on December 17, 2013 in Melbourne, Australia. Football Federation Australia (FFA) celebrated the heroes of yesterday by naming its Teams of the Decades in conjunction with the 50th Anniversary of FIFA Membership at a Hall of Fame function.  (Photo by Scott Barbour/Getty Images)
Camera IconLate, great soccer commentator Les Murray penned a piece that perfectly described the modern balance between coach and professional players. Credit: Scott Barbour/Getty Images AsiaPac

“Often, of course, the players are to blame,” Murray wrote.

“For some reason they lose confidence, in each other as well as the coach, and results turn bad. Wins become harder and harder to get. A rot sets in. Then often the players turn on the coach because they blame him for not providing the technical leadership needed to get them out of their rut.

“This is what is called the coach losing the dressing room.”

This begs the question that if Langer has lost the dressing room, how has the team been winning?

And in any case, Langer has a consistent history of standing up for his players publicly. It was there for embattled opener Marcus Harris during this series, as it was for Steve Smith and David Warner during the last Ashes series in England, where he watched the pair cop relentless taunting for their roles in the South African scandal.

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA - DECEMBER 03: Steve Smith during an Australian Test squad practice session at Redlands CC on December 03, 2021 in Brisbane, Australia. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
Camera IconJustin Langer publicly stood up for Steve Smith (pictured) after his ball tampering scandal during the last Ashes series. Credit: Chris Hyde/Getty Images

“I always waited for the boys to get on the bus and I wanted to fight every day,” he said.

Times have changed. Players now have every right to feather their nests in the best way possible as athletes. The semi-professional days of the back-pocket plumbers in elite sport are long gone and careers are short. But the ultimate guidance should come from the top, not from within the ranks.

One thing we do know about Langer is that he is tough. And he loves mantras that revolve around values, such as being rewarded for hard work, honesty, earning respect, respecting the past, celebrating success and building good culture.

“Culture is just about behaviour,” Langer once said. “You behave well, you’ve got a good culture. You behave poorly, you’ve got a bad culture.”

I smell some bad behaviour.

In The West Australian on January 1, Langer revealed his new year resolution. If the jungle drums are beating truly, albeit unfairly, they may soon prove the words that will be his crutch.

“I’m optimistic for the future, expect less from people, happy when I’m surprised and let go of things that are out of my control.”

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