SYDNEY: Faced with months of reported complaints by senior players over his rigid coaching style and an apparently uncompromising Cricket Australia (CA) board of directors, Justin Langer resigned as head coach of the Australian men’s cricket team on Saturday.

The initial announcement was made in a statement from Langer’s management company DSEG while Langer was flying from Melbourne to his hometown of Perth.

“DSEG confirms that our client Justin Langer has this morning tendered his resignation as coach of the Australian men’s cricket team,” the statement said. “The resignation follows a meeting with CA last evening. The resignation is effective immediately.”

After weeks of scrutiny about whether he would have his four-year contract extended beyond June, the CA board met on Friday to discuss the 51-year-old West Australian’s future.

CA said in a statement that Langer, a veteran of 105 Tests, was offered a short-term extension to his current contract, which sadly he has opted not to accept.

The CA praised his “outstanding leadership”.

“Justin is not only a legend of the game but an outstanding individual,” the statement said adding assistant coach Andrew McDonald had been appointed interim head coach.

Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting, who is close friends with Langer, they share the same agent told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio that he believes Langer was pushed out of the job and its a really sad day as far as Australian cricket is concerned, adding that the situation was embarrassing.”

Reports in Australian media over the past several months said Langer’s intense coaching style had led to complaints from Australia’s senior players to CA executives. Captain Pat Cummins had failed to endorse Langer during a radio interview on Friday, saying it was important to evaluate Langer’s position.

CA chief executive Nick Hockley did not give details of the dressing room divisions, but said it was time for the team to “transition” to a new coach for the sake of “unity and future success”.

Hockley further said CA would be looking for someone “strategic” to manage batting, bowling and other coaches who were ready to step up into more autonomous roles.

The team had enjoyed a strong run of play with an unexpected victory in the T20 World Cup in the UAE in November followed by a comprehensive 4-0 Ashes win at home. CA said Langer’s contract extension offer, if accepted, would have seen him remain in charge to help Australia defend their T20 title in Australia at the end of the year.

Ponting said he was disappointed Cummins had not publicly backed Langer, but said he understood the captain was caught in the middle.

Ponting also said it was a a very small group of players and other support staff that had become upset with Langer’s tough coaching style.

“That’s been enough to force a man that has put his life and heart and soul into Australian cricket,” Ponting said.

“And [someone who has] done a sensational job of turning around the culture and the way the Australian cricket team has been looked at over the past three or four years.”

Langer took up the coaching job after the March 2018 sandpaper ball-tampering scandal involving Australia batter Cameron Bancroft, then-captain Steve Smith and vice-captain David Warner were suspended for a year.

As a result, then-Australia coach Darren Lehmann stepped down and was replaced by Langer.

Langer not only ended the rot but also oversaw a string of wins that took Australia back to the top of the Test rankings and culminated in recent victories in the T20 World Cup and the Ashes.

Former captain Mark Taylor said he suspected Langer had completed the job he was brought in to do and CA now wanted “more of a man manager and less of an absolute cricket coach and disciplinarian”.

McDonald and Michael Di Venuto, former England coach Trevor Bayliss and Ponting have been mentioned as potential replacements for Langer, although Ponting’s critical comments of CA on Saturday may remove him as one of the coaching candidates.

England coach Chris Silverwood stepped down from his role in the wake of their heavy Ashes loss, following managing director Ashley Giles out. Graham Thorpe left as assistant coach on Friday.

Former captain Andrew Strauss, who led a review into the defeat, will appoint a caretaker coach to oversee England’s Test series in the West Indies next month.

Strauss and Langer played county cricket together at Middlesex and have maintained a friendship since retiring which has led to suggestions that Langer may be in line for the vacant full-time England coaching job.

Former England captain Michael Vaughan wrote in a column for the London Telegraph on Friday that Langer could deliver a reality check to England with some tough love if given the job.

Published in Dawn, February 6th, 2022