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.
Clear as mud
Guest
Suck it up along with your democracy sausage
Big Daddy
Roar Rookie
My thoughts as well . The 2 most used words , intense and obsessed/ obsessive are being bandied about and months later Langer has confirmed his behaviour as that . He cannot accept the fact that he wasn't going to be the coach any more and is obsessed about it . Everyone changes their personality at some stage . Something changed to make the players react in that way . CA were probably being kind in saying his contract wasn't being extended . Heaven knows how he would have reacted if he was told the truth the players didn't want him any more and this behaviour right now is more than likely now how it would have went .
Chanon
Roar Rookie
Morse Code is the only way :stoked:
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
And now they've shown up :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
And now I've had 2 deleted
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
And a very innocuous message has also been deleted.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
I tried explaining why there is so many differing types of Scorpios but it was considered a KGB level information.
Chanon
Roar Rookie
Damn it :laughing:
Clear as mud
Guest
Maybe that is why I can detect it?! (Cards on the table. I never wanted Langer. Never believed the messiah thing. Never understood why yhe Board did a review and a massive penalty and yet still appeared to offer up a single figure as a saviour. Never trusted Langer to not believe, with his religion and his conservatism and his obsession with his version of tradition. His overt and cringey bromance with the bully Hayden, of similar demeanour. Couldn’t stand his “good bloke” and “honesty” Riffs and could never forgive him for his Maxwell moment.never really saw what he brought to the team tactically. So was glad to see him go. Much preferred Langer the counter puncher in NZ in 2000, there it is. All he had to do was leave proudly.) In terms of entitlement. Is it more entitled than an Australian captain choosing when to tour, and being rewarded for it? Players going to WSC and then demanding to be picked, some for a farewell tour that totally destroyed any succession planning? A generation of guys all plucked early in the 90s who collectively decided that the generation below them had to wait and bang the door down because they all had decided they had earned the right to go out on their own terms? An Australian captain who very swiftly demoted and them moved on a much loved and respected elder coach? A superstar player who gave information to bookies and publicly mutinied against the coach? That’s my point really. Maybe you hated all of that too. But you seem quick to jump on and shame this current team, Maxwell etc, and infer - it seems to me - that they are somehow different or worser than those who came before. And it just seems unfair and unreasonable. It seems like a fairly benign group of business as usualists. Some who went troppo for a variety of reasons and most of whom have reformed majorly, as we demanded they do. Add in social media and the death of journalism. Who could cope today. And you should always favour the players over the Board or the coach. Stick it to the man! Going right back to Trumper’s time. Lawry, WSC. That’s just where I am coming from. Peace, out.
badmanners
Roar Rookie
I wonder as so many of the players are playing IPL and they come into contact with other high level coaching staff with different coaching styles whether coming back to such an intense character as JL just grated a bit too much? It was also mentioned in Peter FitzSimmons column yesterday that Ussie raised concerns about JL's coaching style in the doco The Test and that was 3+ years ago only 9 months or so into JL's tenure.
Peter Darrow
Roar Guru
Simon the people who like the Australian cricket team are probably the same people who just voted Dan Andrews back in.
Simon
Guest
Blimey Peter if you can't see that you've been sucked in to a media beat up then I don't know what to tell you. The only people who don't like the Australian team are people who comment on Facebook a lot. And if you know any people in real life who comment on Facebook a lot, that doesn't hold up to much
Jeff
Roar Rookie
"players wanted". Well there you go. And who thought that cricketers were only selected on a game-by-game performance basis? It's good we've moved into the era of players assuming they are the ones that will be automatically selected to play for at least several years hence. Spread that approach universally throughout the business world I say :-)
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
I answered but it didn't get allowed
DaveJ
Roar Rookie
Neither being cowards nor necessarily being nice. Obviously going public with an on-the-record comment would cause trouble for the player as well as unneeded controversy and division around the team. But I think Langer admitted that some players and CA did give him feedback.
ColinT
Roar Rookie
“if you’re a source for a newspaper article it means you’re a coward.” Actually Matt, you omitted the word ‘anonymous’. Of course journalists generally love people who make anonymous, derogatory character assassinations. It provides grist for the news cycle. Of course it is more prevalent in political journalism than sports journalism, at least I hope so. Unsurprisingly, journalists are generally held in pretty low esteem by the public. Perhaps, as you suggest, the anonymous whisperers might just be ‘nice’ people, but I don’t think it is particularly courageous and I can’t understand how anyone could logically believe that undermining a person through anonymous leaks to the media would not end up being very hurtful to that person.
Redcap
Roar Guru
Why is this still a thing? The players were clearly a bit fed-up with Langer, there was a preferred alternative coach already in the set-up. The position of coach in elite cricket isn't like that of a coach in rugby league - it's more facilitator than dictator. Langer's departure was inevitable. And now he's gone - long gone - and with every strange, confusing media appearance, the chances of a return become even less likely. Why is this still a thing? "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." Maybe it's really important to some folk that people in their twenties defer to characters like Langer. If the players had become fed-up with a coach more like me - not aggressively religious or patriotic, a lot closer to the 'woke' (whatever that means) end of the spectrum - and quietly affected that coach's defenestration, I doubt we'd still be talking about it.
Bruce
Guest
True clear as mud- Many jobs require flexibility and adaptability and langer by his own admission couldn’t do that part of the job so he totally deserved to be sacked. He was lucky he was not formally sacked - just offered an insulting extension by Cricket Australia that they knew he would refuse. The bald Brummie, Nick Hornsby, has done a great job for England as CEO of Cricket Australia. Australian cricket is in disarray and was just degraded at their own World Cup. Keep up the good work Nick!
Christo the Daddyo
Roar Rookie
A generous interpretation of what’s gone on! Langer REALLY needs to shut up now.
Marty
Roar Rookie
I don’t ‘hate’ the players. What I hate is the sense of entitlement we are seeing from some of the senior players. I don’t think it’s healthy in any professional setup, and this team is no different. Oh well, the next generation is coming through, can’t wait to see what Green does this summer. So I will indeed be watching the cricket. And considering some of the abusive invective you have directed towards Langer on this site I’d suggest that you are about the last person to be accusing others of ‘hate’.