England must be having a good laugh right now

I’ll bet Joe Root and the rest of the England team did not think they’d be having plenty to laugh about, so soon after that very ordinary day five batting display at Lord’s.

All out in less than 55 overs and two sessions, was about as bad as it gets at Test level.

Virat Kohli’s team had done Australia a huge favour, helping to keep England’s confidence levels low with that win. This is an England team that has been building towards the Ashes for the best part of three years and thanks to injury, poor form and poor technique, their chances of winning the series in Australia after last Tuesday looked shot.

They must have been delighted though, to wake up on Wednesday and read about the debacle that surrounds the Australian coach, Cricket Australia and the players.

I’m not going to get into who said what to whom and what the specific issues are, mostly because I can’t get a clear read on any of it. Suffice it to say, there appear to be some player issues with Langer as coach, but Cricket Australia has publicly backed Langer.

There are several reasons why I consider this to be a debacle.

If reports are correct, the issues with Langer first surfaced following a review earlier in the year, straight after the loss to India. That’s the best part of five or six months ago yet this is still bubbling away half way through August.

(Photo by Matt King – CA/Cricket Australia via Getty Images)

Why was this not sorted out when the report first came out months ago?

Apparently Langer then met with the squad who were due to tour the West Indies in July and others not on that tour, joined in remotely. Reports suggest Langer addressed the issues raised by the players, yet here we are in August and it seems whatever was said, was not enough to satisfy all.

More to the point, whatever was said was not enough to keep players and/or staff from opening their mouths about these problems.

Then we come to the present time where Nick Hockley, the CEO of Cricket Australia, has come out in his defence with what amounts to a backhanded statement of support.

Few could argue with his statement, “Justin has done an incredible job in raising the culture, values and behaviours of the Australian men’s team since he took on the role in 2018,”

He then shot himself down when he said “Despite those challenges (covid quarantines, etc) the side has had great success in one-day, Test and T20 cricket, when all players were available.”

I’m a fan of Langer but even I can’t see the “great” success we’ve had under his tenure. Hockley threw in the caveat “when all players were available.”, but I can’t think of a time in the past three years when Australia has had all players available.

I also can’t think of a time when we’ve had anything more than moderate success in ODI cricket and any success in T20s, in the past 12 or 18 months.

The further problem with this statement of support is, it does not touch on the issues that caused all the kerfuffle in in the first place.

I don’t think the cricketing public should be made privy to specifics, even though I’m sure many would like to know.

What I would like to know is what were the broad issues, how were they addressed, when were they addressed and have they been firmly put to bed?

This mission statement from Hockley tells me none of that. Instead we get platitudes about what a great job Langer’s done (which is debatable) and how he’s got the job until the after the Ashes.

To cap all of this off, these issues are being debated in the court of public opinion. Someone, be it players(s) or management, is airing dirty laundry in public, showing Cricket Australia has not sorted this out, once and for all.

So what’s the end result?

Cricket Australia and especially Nick Hockley, have been made to look amateurish in how they have not addressed these issues.

Professional managers identify concerns and resolve them, quickly and effectively. That these matters are being talked about publicly three or four months after being raised, is simply poor people management.

The T20 World Cup starts in a bit over two months and the issues that were raised months ago don’t appear to have been addressed.

Anyone who’s played team sport knows problems that are allowed to fester, can quickly spread and can kill team morale and sap player confidence, faster than covid can spread through a packed pub.

And you can bet, over the coming months, the England team and their media will be asking plenty of questions of the Aussie captains, Langer and the other players, not only about their chances of winning but how they’re relationships are going.

I’m not concerned greatly about the World Cup but am about the Ashes and our national teams in general. Australian cricket is not strong enough to manage messy public issues about its coach and still play winning cricket.

For the sake of the Test side in particular, this matter must be resolved now. If it’s still around when Joe Root’s team comes calling in December, it will be next to impossible for a disjointed Australian unit to win the Ashes.