Former greats Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist and Michael Vaughan have urged Cricket Australia to retain coach Justin Langer, despite rumours he could be out the door following the much-publicised rift with the players.
Reports of player discontent with Langer’s style of coaching have dominated discussion for the past 12 months; however, the trio have blamed the players’ attitude for the feud as much as the coach’s own faults.
Speaking on Fox Cricket’s The Big Break, former England captain Vaughan was particularly scathing.
“I’ll be totally honest with you: I do think there’s too much player power across the board,” he said.
“I hear it too often in the English game across the counties, across the national teams, I hear it in the franchise system that all the players don’t like the coach because it’s not a friendlier atmosphere and it’s not nice.
“High-level sport’s about winning. I always believed as a sportsperson, sometimes, and not every character, but there’s a lot of characters in professional sport that need to be on edge. That edge is created by the captain, by the coach, sometimes by the environment, and it triggers you to a better performance.
“All this nicely, nicely – it’s not a creche!”
Vaughan compared Langer to legendary Manchester United coach Alex Ferguson’s famously tough style of coaching, saying that ‘being on eggshells’ is an important way to ensure players get as much out of themselves as they can.
“He [Alex Ferguson] believes that to play at the highest level, it’s important that you’ve got that motivation, and sometimes that motivation comes from being on eggshells within the group,” Vaughan said.
“That means that you arrive at every training session, you have a point to prove. If you don’t have that point to prove, sometimes you can get complacent.
“I’ve never been in a dressing room with Justin Langer, so I can’t ultimately say, but from me looking from the outside, he looks to me like he creates an atmosphere that you might be on eggshells, and you might have a point to prove.
“He’s probably not going to blow smoke up your backside every day, but is that a bad thing?”
Warne, regularly seen as one of the greatest captains Australian cricket never had, agreed, pointing to Langer’s recent successes during the Ashes and the T20 World Cup as deserving of a new deal.
“How do you judge a coach? That’s the hardest thing; how would you judge a coach’s performance to say they’ve made the players better, they’ve helped Australian cricket. I think Justin Langer gets a tick on all of that,” Warne said.
“He’s just won an Ashes series, he’s just won a T20 World Cup. If the players don’t like him or don’t want him there, I thought that was the conversation that’s been had.
“It seems to me that Australia have turned it around a little bit, the cricket they’ve played here, the cricket they played in the T20 World Cup. For me, I don’t know what everyone’s waiting for, he should be signed in my opinion. He’s done such a good job.
“On the other side of the coin, coaches also have a shelf life because they can only inject so much. He’s been there for four years.
“For me, I don’t know what they’re waiting for.”
Vaughan also noted that Langer’s demeanour has noticeably changed from his famously prickly attitude in years gone by, while saying that the circumstances of his arrival at the helm – in the aftermath of Australia’s infamous ball-tampering scandal in early 2018 – required a harder approach.
“He’s evolved into a different style of coach. You can clearly see that,” Vaughan said.
“He was smiling- we didn’t see smiling a couple of years ago. When he took over, Australian cricket couldn’t smile.
“Just look at the time he took over, after ‘Sandpapergate’ in Cape Town, and all of a sudden he had to bring a method, he had to bring a way, he had to create a culture.
“He’s created that, and at times when you’re doing that you’re not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. You might upset the odd one or two.”
“If some of the players don’t like you, I think that’s okay. You’re not there to make friends,” Warne added.
Warne also asserted that should Australia part ways with Langer, England would be only too keen to ‘snap him up’, a claim Vaughan was quick to endorse.
“I would certainly be trying to get on the phone to Justin Langer to potentially have him as a consultant if the opportunity came in English cricket,” he said.
While less forceful with his opinion than Warne and Vaughan, Gilchrist was similarly full of praise for his former Test and Western Australian state teammate Langer; saying the ‘honest feedback’ he has received from the players has borne fruit.
“I think he’s ticked all the boxes that were required of him, what he was brought in for,” Gilchrist said.
“He seems to be showing signs of wanting to change and evolve with the honest feedback that he was able to eventually solicit through the players rather than through the media.”
Langer’s predecessor as coach, Darren Lehmann, has urged the 51-year old to leave of his own accord when his contract expires at the end of the upcoming tour to Pakistan, saying ‘he will burn out’ if he goes on too long.
Morsie
Roar Rookie
I would guess that Lehman was part of that culture.
JGK
Roar Guru
“I’ll be totally honest with you: I do think there’s too much player power across the board,” he said. Sorry Vaughany, the world has moved on. It's the same in all professional sports.
Howzat
Guest
Maybe Warnie remembers the incredible success Australia had under coach Buchannan and realises that your personal likes and dislikes of a successful coach are irrelevant.
qwetzen
Roar Rookie
Is coaching Australia to become the poisoned chalice for coaches. I fearlessly predict that media attacks on the Oz coach will cease as soon as a NSWer gets the gig.
qwetzen
Roar Rookie
Ah yes, the "much publicised", but completely name-free, rift with some "senior players". Given the age & recent form of those senior players, not to mention their past misdemeanors, CA would be nuts to take any notice of them. Btw, there is an absolutely disgraceful attack piece on Langer by the dreaded Malcolm Conn in today's SMH. His second in two days. I'm so outraged that I'm going to subscribe to the rag just so that I can write an email of disgust to the editor and cancel my sub...
badmanners
Roar Rookie
His daughters must all be married off by now?
Derek Murray
Roar Rookie
I’d argue Lehman had a responsibility to address the cultural issues that led to Cape Town and failed
Derek Murray
Roar Rookie
One and the same. Does Warnie have no memory or no shame?
Linphoma
Guest
Could conventional wisdom be flipped? I acknowledge it's a bit rich for Warnie to be rabbiting on about the coach when his record under the Buck stewardship was hardly exemplary. But could it be the coach's position, and not the captain, the key to Australian success? Australia's dominance was forged on the regimen blokes like Bob Simpson in the first instance, carried on through Swampy, Buck? And is JL the latest hard taskmaster?
Micko
Roar Rookie
Lehmann was fine apart from being there at the wrong time. His position was untenable after Cape Town.
Jeff
Roar Rookie
I'd say Micko, that a lot of that "lateral" thinking is exactly where current generations are at. It's who holds the power and the way that is spread around, including among players who expect more control over their destinies, that is the issue, if there is one.
Jeff
Roar Rookie
The power balance has shifted to players in recent years given opportunities to chase franchise contracts and $$. It's not just cricket. Plus recent generations expect a more "inclusive" approach re decision making and impacts on their careers. And that's something that older coaches have to acknowledge and work with, if their job is to get the most out of their players. But there still a place for "a leader" with whom the buck stops. Players have to also acknowledge that, unless they are prepared to open themselves up to a wide-range of of decision making about their futures. For mine, Langer's been adjusting just fine to this power balance shift. It may not be perfect, but he's shown the ability to remodel and ultimately the results are now forthcoming.
Just Nuisance
Roar Rookie
I’m not sure how much truth there is to all this frankly . One side it appears kinda improbable that players are unhappy with Langer . A winning dressing room usually a happy one . Then I recall Mickey Arthur and his experiences working with the Aussie players . Yes the same coach who for years had no issues , certainly not publicized with some of crickets greats , think Kallis , Pollock , Donald , Steyn , AB de Villiers , but didn’t fare too well with the Aussie players . I mean effectively they shafted him . Enter Lehmann and we all know how that went . Is coaching Australia to become the poisoned chalice for coaches . This possibly beginning to look like a new “ we just shot ourselves in the foot ….again “ scenario unfolding . Hope it’s all just BS because if it’s not the toxic culture may still be contaminating the change room . Interesting times .
Micko
Roar Rookie
Langer does love spouting all this pretentious claptrap apparently. I'd imagine that would wear thin after a while.
U
Roar Rookie
These the same former greats who advise the current players to do things they never did?
Choppy Zezers
Roar Rookie
In his comments, replace "Langer" with "John Buchanan".
Ben Rodham
Guest
The worst thing about full time pro sport is full time pro coaches who don't know when to stop. Coaches who make it all ustabout them. Justin langer has learned to calm down but i don't think it will, or should save his job. He didnt win the t20 world cup, the players did. Langer dealt in those inspirational cliches that to me are huge red flags. The bloke would have hardly got a game for Australia if Michael Slater wasn't mentally ill.
danwain
Roar Rookie
Same Shane Warne that said coaches in international cricket are pointless?