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Opinion
Justin Langer appears to believe that if you’re a source for a newspaper article it means you’re a coward.
As he claimed on the Backchat podcast, some Australian cricketers, during his tenure as coach, were ‘leaking’ stories to the media, off-the-record, anonymously, rather than telling him stuff face-to-face.
But here’s an alternate viewpoint: they were just being nice.
And those players were ‘leaking’ to media because, in part, they didn’t want Langer to be coach – not that version of Langer, anyway – and didn’t want to hurt his feelings.
Why? Because they’re nice people capable of empathy for a fellow human being, colleague and friend. Because they like the mad little bastard and knew how much being part of Australian cricket means to him.
If there was an “agenda”, as Langer declared, perhaps that was it.
Doesn’t necessarily mean they’re “cowards” with an “axe to grind”.
They could be just nice.
Ring true, right? This batch of Australian cricketers, the leaders particularly, come across that way. Tim Paine, Aaron Finch, they’re nice people, you don’t have to know them to tell.
Pat Cummins is captain of the World Nice XI.
Steve Smith, Nathan Lyon, Marnus Labuschagne, Alex Carey, Josh Hazelwood – nice.
Maybe not Kiwi nice. But pretty nice.
Mitchell Starc off the field is so nice he’s borderline shy.
Mitchell Starc of Australia celebrates a wicket. (Photo by Albert Perez/Getty Images)
It is written in Usman Khawaja’s spiritual guidebook that he must be nice, for it is proclaimed in Divine Law.
And when you’re nice you tend to be empathetic of other people’s feelings. And while some didn’t want Langer to be coach any more, they still liked the mad bastard and didn’t want to hurt him.
Langer told Backchat he’s a fan of “brutal honesty”. He said he wanted to hug Paine through the Facetime chat when he heard Paine’s truth, whatever that was.
But you know what? I still don’t think Langer heard the whole truth. The truth that said no matter how much he changed in his coaching style and man-management – his personality – there would be no tinkering around the edges. How much can a 52-year-old man change?
I think they just didn’t want to tell him that they didn’t want him as coach anymore.
So, maybe they told media. Or maybe they went through ‘proper channels’, told Cricket Australia and someone in CA told media.
Regardless, the brutally honest assessment that Langer wanted appears to be that Australia’s top cricketers preferred the other guy, Andrew McDonald, a peer, not an ‘old’ bloke from a previous so-called ‘golden generation’.
Langer said: “People say that I’m very intense, but they’re mistaking intensity with honesty.”
(Photo by Jonathan DiMaggio/Getty Images for the Australian Cricketers’ Association
Don’t know about that. I think they mean he’s very intense. And I think the players just couldn’t cop it. It’d be exhausting, particularly when you’re playing two or three formats all year.
Langer can take on a messianic look in his eyes. There’s that religious bent, the karate or jui-jitsu or whatever. The overt patriotism. He’s a fellow so big on motivational quotes he wrote a book about it.
He’s a serious person.
And I reckon the relatively laidback 20- and 30-something Australian cricketers effectively, end of the day, just didn’t dig his gibber nor the cut of his jib.
Again – they still like him.
Again – not all the bloody time.
And it was leaks-a-go-go.
Bad form? Maybe. But it’s like breaking up with a long-term girlfriend. You take them to dinner and tell them lies to spare their feelings. It’s me, not you, all that.
Now, sure, playing for Australia is the greatest thing an Aussie can do in this sporting life. And it demands a serious approach.
But it is only a game of bloody cricket. Got to be time for fun. Time to get on the piss and not give a shit. And not everyone’s a flag-sucker.
Granted, after Langer took on board the honesty and apparently fixed some things in his approach and in himself, Australia won a T20 World Cup and the Ashes.
But Cricket Australia didn’t want him as coach. A six-month extension? Proud guy like Langer was always going to walk. Wonder if CA knew that. Wonder if CA talked to any players?
You think?
Of his now inflammatory podcast appearance, Langer tried to clear some things up.
“There was sort of talk about relating the word ‘coward’ with Pat Cummins,” he told Fox Sports.
“If you listen to the podcast, I was actually praising Pat, I was praising Finchy, I was praising Tim Paine for giving me the feedback. I was actually complimenting them, not criticising them as it’s come out. It turns into a bushfire, what do you do?”
Backtrack?
Mike Hussey reckons Langer loves his players as if they are his sons. Langer told Fox Sports it’s more like “little brothers”.
“I loved my four years of coaching Australia, it was brilliant. Didn’t end as I would’ve liked – that’s life, that’s the business, it’s a tough business. I’ve got fond memories.
“Those guys we’re talking about, I ate with them, I drank with them, I celebrated with them, we got through Covid together, we got through sandpaper together, we won the World Cup together, we won the Ashes together. They’re like my little brothers!” Langer said.
And not cowards, presumably.