Justin Langer has revealed his life as a coach may be over.
Following his departure from leading the national cricket Test side, an emotional Langer spoke candidly with The Australian’s Peter Lalor and Gideon Haigh on the podcast Cricket Et Cetera, admitting there may be no future for him at the top given what he has just endured.
“I don’t think I’ll coach again. No, I don’t think I’ll coach again,” said the former Australia coach.
“The craziness is – and it’s really strange in cricket – if you think about a lot of the other codes, the best coaches are a lot older. It doesn’t make sense in cricket.
“I say I’m not going to coach again, but I reckon I’m 10 years off being the best coach I could be. I honestly reckon – because things don’t shock you, things don’t surprise you (the more experienced you get).”
Langer went on to explain how the noise surrounding his exit from the top job “literally broke my heart.”
“The hardest thing about my last 12 months, and I say it hand on heart, was there was this narrative that I hated the players or the players hated me back. That literally broke my heart,” said Langer.
“Everything I’ve done for literally the whole time – when I was in Western Australia coaching the Scorchers, when I was with Phil Hughes when I first started and with Steve Smith, I came up with them as kids (when I was) an assistant coach (was because I loved the players).”
Some cricket fans who believed in the narrative about unrest in the squad were happy to see Langer’s departure, with the latest series of ‘The Test’ giving an insight into what they saw as a poor coaching style. Many won’t be giving him the sympathy he seems to be seeking.
But Langer was adamant that despite what others felt about the way he coached, he loved his team.
“Some of the players may not have liked my style. I am serious, I can be intense. But they know how much I loved them and they loved me back.
“I kept reading this narrative and it literally broke my heart.
“That’s why when you ask if I’ll be a better coach next time, for my family I am not sure I can go through that again.”
Langer maintains that he still holds “very special relationships” with players from the Australian group.
“My kids love me unconditionally. As a coach sometimes you have to do that. You’ve got to pull them into line. You have to have the bigger picture in mind,” said Langer.
“Some people aren’t going to like that and because they’re not your kids they’re going to say ‘well he’s disposable’.
“That’s fine. That’s life. But that’s the killer.”
Kalva
Roar Rookie
Who's the Bison?
Pierro
Roar Rookie
well it's true it is getting a bit dull reporting wise
humesy
Roar Rookie
He is literally the only one to use the word hate. Maintaining that the media have been using it: both from him and the players. It's absolute crap and typical of the hyperbole that constantly comes out of his mouth. Nowhere was it reported that there was hate and he wants us to believe his heart is literally broken? The media revs it up because he keeps saying this sort of crap in every podcast interview he does. If he actually had the sense to say no more, there would be zero to report on and we would have all moved on months ago.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
That maybe the issue with our captain's of late. The Data Paralysis Equilibrium model. To be a good captain the main abstract to possess is to be your own man, own woman. Good captain's are not necessarily the best batsperson but, rather, the person with the most proclivity to attacking cricket. It's very similar to high school teaching. If you follow what University teaches you in regards to being a teacher you'll end up being road kill. Teachers are born, not produced. Same with the captaincy.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
Idle threats are lies, lies that end up not being believed because, well, they are lies.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
Geminis are pretty chill with other people unless they have a lot of Yin planets in their chart. Especially if those Yin planets are in Cancer or Pisces. -------- Geminis make good batsperson tennis players and sprinter / hurdler types. And Motor Cycle Racers. They also are fidgets: S Waugh, S Smith, M Jenneke, R Nadal, N Djokovic
Pierro
Roar Rookie
rowds I'd say that is correct with Scorpios I've felt their intensity and rage. Perhaps that makes Geminis sensitive though
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
Intense and Sensitive. 2 of the 5 keywords of people born with Scorpio energy. But they tend to hide it but it rages beneath.
Pierro
Roar Rookie
I think Langer may be overly sensitive and hes not maintaining the narrative that he hated his players it's more that he's hearing they hated him but really it's just they found him.overly intense or a bit too much verbally hence my comment above ..media is revving it up too though .
humesy
Roar Rookie
So why is Langer maintaining that there was a narrative that he hated his players if nobody thinks that? It wasn't a media spun thing either. He seems intent on not moving forward but rehashing an overly dramatic version of things.
Wes P
Roar Rookie
Australian cricketers are prima Donna's nowadays. Langer OMG. Poor man he can lay bricks. Even Usman banging on about racism. Don't see any Australian born citizens playing in Pakistan. The more they get the more entitled they become. The whole organisation is imperialist telling sovereign nations like Afghanistan how to run their country.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
They do.
Chanon
Roar Rookie
A wiser fella once said sometimes you eat the bar well, sometimes the bar eats you! Langer & all scorpions fall on the Sword of St Galgano from time to time :stoked:
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
True. But the emotions are deep. They are the "Ice" state of the 3 Water Signs. Crabs are Liquid. Pisces are Steam
Chanon
Roar Rookie
Rowdy he is a scorpion very emotional proud folk
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
A lot of people do it when they're speaking pacifically.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
Actually, I was just making a little joke.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
Figuratively speaking. :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:
DaveJ
Roar Rookie
He said it literally broke his heart, which is usually fatal.
Clear as mud
Guest
it reads like there was agreement/acceptance that there had to be a period of realignment after South Africa. even where it wasn't needed, or for people who didn't ever need it. the "public" needed to see it occur, and the players were pragmatic enough to go with it it reads like they expected to morph to a more "normal" model. a bigger focus on skills and tactics and less overegging values and culture. player development etc. winning, not losing. that doesn't seem to have occurred. or was driven by others around the team. so you can understand - well, I can - players saying "we don't need, we don't want 4 more years of that sort of stuff." --- the nearest equivalent I reckon is the move on Rudd. factionless, elevated by others to be a front man for an election they were always going to win. turned out to be very popular. struggled post-GFC to act, not talk. imagine if he won another close election, his ego was apparently unbearable after the 07 win (he, too, appeared to believe the Messiah rhetoric.) so "players" could have thought "he'll either lose the election, or win and be even more difficult to work with - so we have to act now, and take our chances." it was brutal, as the move on Langer. as was the move on Arthur. the end of Neilsen. the swift demise of Lehmann. they are all heroes in the bigger picture and the longer term. go on a study tour, that seems to be de rigeur. I would love one...