Justin Langer interview on exit as coach, Pat Cummins, Aaron Finch and Australia cricket team

Justin Langer discusses his disappointment over ‘cowardly’ leaks, whether he lost the Australian dressing room and what he would have changed, writes WILL SCHOFIELD.

Justin Langer insists he had no issue receiving confronting feedback from captains, players and staff during his tenure as head coach of the Australian men’s cricket team – but bristled at a perceived leaking campaign that ultimately undermined his position.

Almost 10 months since his resignation from the role, following Cricket Australia’s decision to offer him only a six-month contract extension, Langer outlined the feedback he received from three captains – Tim Paine, Aaron Finch and Pat Cummins – and his willingness to engage and evolve.

Langer said he respected direct feedback, similar to that he received from past leaders such as Allan Border and Steve Waugh, and found it difficult to comprehend why some senior leaders struggled to provide it.

“This is the killer for me,” Langer said.

“(Aaron Finch) gave me some feedback and then I rang (him).

“I said, ‘Finchy, mate, we’ve been captain and coach for four years!’

“He goes, ‘Yeah, I know. I’ve been a bit of a pussy, haven’t I? I don’t like confrontation.’

“What do you mean (by) confrontation, mate?

“Just tell me.

“So he did tell me, and I go, ‘Oh, yeah, cool.’

“And he’s going, ‘What, you’re not upset?’ (I replied), ‘No, no. What do you mean upset? This is so fixable. This is easy.’

“I’ve got a curious mind. You evolve.

“You get better. That’s life, right?

“I spoke to Pat Cummins.

“He said to me about five times, ‘This might be brutally honest.’

“I said, ‘Pat, there is nothing brutal about your feedback. What is brutal is I’m hearing it behind my back through the media or through sources’.

“No one’s telling me. Tell me.

“People say that I’m very intense, but they’re mistaking intensity with honesty.”

Langer wanted more honesty from Pat Cummins and the Australian team when it came to feedback in his direction. Picture: Chris Hyde/Getty Images

By contrast, Langer said the feedback he received from Tim Paine was direct and clear, despite the former Test captain’s initial trepidation in making his views known to the coach.

“With Painey, we had this conversation, and he goes, ‘Mate I haven’t been able to sleep.’ I said, ‘Mate, just be 100 per cent honest with me’,” Langer says.

“And I’m sitting there going, ‘You’re joking, awesome, no worries’.

“It was one-out-of-10, one-out-of-100.

“It was the easiest shit to change.

“I’m going, ‘Thanks mate,’ and it was like a gift.

“Tim Paine was really clear with me. It was awesome.

“Just like I’m clear.

“One thing I will always say, when people talk to me, they will never go to sleep at night wondering if that’s the truth.

“And because it’s clear, it’s honest, it’s kind.

“Tim Paine was honest with me. I felt like jumping through the FaceTime and giving him a hug [to say], ‘Thank you so much’.”

Langer says he had undertaken to listen and act on the feedback regarding his coaching style after a testing few years in which the team contended with extended quarantine periods, biosecurity protocols and other restrictions on freedoms during the pandemic.

The public leaking of team information made that process more challenging, he contends.

Langer appreciated the direct feedback former captain Tim Paine gave him. Picture: Ryan Pierse/Getty Images

“Everyone was being nice to my face but I was reading about this stuff and half of it, I swear to God and on my kids’ lives, I could not believe that is what was making the papers,” Langer said.

“A lot of journalists use the word ‘source’. I would say, change that word to ‘coward’.

“A coward says, not a source.

“Because what do you mean a source says? They’ve either got an axe to grind with someone and they won’t come and say it to your face, or they’re just leaking stuff for their own agenda.

“I hate that.”

Langer made public his desire to continue as the Australian men’s team head coach as his four-year contract neared completion, despite growing reports that some senior figures within the team wanted a fresh approach.

He felt confident in doing so, he says, because he had responded proactively to the feedback provided to him about his approach to the role and the team was performing well.

The fact that he was only offered a short-term extension by Cricket Australia despite this is still difficult for him to accept.

“I’ve never said this publicly,” Langer says.

“The hardest thing for me of all of it was: I got the feedback (and) I did something about it.

“We won the T20 World Cup, we won the Ashes.

“We were No. 1 in the world.

“I’ve never enjoyed coaching more and I’ve still got sacked.

“That’s the hardest thing.

“Because you can’t give someone feedback, do something about it, and then that to happen.

“It’d be like … a player says to me, ‘Coach, I’m the best one-day player in the world, I’m the best Test cricketer in the world. I want to get in the T20 side. What do I have to do?’

“I give them some advice. And they say, ‘Oh, thanks so much coach, I’m going to go and work on that’.

“(He) does it, works on it, we pick him, give him the opportunity, he gets five man of the matches in the first five games.

“Well done.

“(Then we say) Actually, we’re going to drop you anyway, mate, because we liked someone better.

“Imagine saying that to a player.”

Langer with the Australian squad he led to T20 World Cup glory. He was out of a job soon after. Picture: Matthew Lewis/ICC via Getty Images

Asked why he felt he was not given the opportunity to continue in the job after acting upon the feedback, Langer replies: “You’d have to ask Cricket Australia that.”

Langer disagrees with reports he had lost the dressing room.

“They used to talk about mutiny on deck,” Langer says.

“They say in leadership: the captain comes out, one, when the iceberg presents (and) when there’s crisis, two, when there’s stormy waters or, three, when there’s mutiny on deck.

“What I’ve learned about mutiny on deck is that it’s usually one or two voices, and they’re the loudest voices and people listen to loud voices.

“When I finished with the Australian cricket team, I would have got messages that make you cry from 90 per cent of the players.

“So I don’t know, mate.

“You’d have to ask someone else.”

Langer, though, concedes he would approach a key element of the role differently if he had his time again.

After taking on the role in the immediate aftermath of the Sandpaper-gate controversy in Cape Town, Langer narrowed his focus to improving the culture and performance of the Australian men’s team.

That, he concedes, came at the expense of working with other elements around Australian cricket.

Langer was appointed coach by James Sutherland in the wake of the sandpaper scandal. Picture: Scott Barbour/Getty Images

“I’ll tell you what I would have done different,” Langer says.

“This might surprise a lot of people, but in four years of being the head coach of Australia, I presented to the Cricket Australia board three times.

“It’s about managing up. I would have asked, almost demanded it (to present).

“As you know, I’m on the board of the West Coast Eagles.

“(Adam Simpson) would present to the board at least three quarters of every board meeting.

“I’m on the footy affairs committee, so I know what’s going on in the footy department.

“And Simmo lives 500 metres from me, so we have a beer together.

“There’s nothing I don’t know.

“So if anyone asked me, I’m aware of what’s going on in the footy club.

“That’s the job of the board, right?

“To just sit back and not interfere, not select, but to be aware of what’s going on.

“And to offer some advice if it’s required, or to listen if things are needed.

“But I talked to the Cricket Australia board three times in four years.

“That‘s craziness.

“And that’s the only thing I’d do differently.

“Because when you know people haven’t got your back, there is no lonelier place in the world.

“When you do know people have got your back, there’s no more powerful place in the world.

“And that’s what I would have done differently.”

Langer would have spent more time with the board if he could go back. Picture: Steve Bell/Getty Images

Langer will return to international venues this summer in the role of television commentator. He has also been linked to international and domestic coaching roles overseas.

He feels he still has much to give to the game, despite the disappointment of his departure from the Australian men’s team in February.

He would also be open to – although is not anticipating – a return to the Australian national team in future.

“That’s a great question, nobody ever asked me that. Yeah, I could coach the Australian cricket team again, but I’m not sure it’ll ever happen,” he says.

“In fact, I’m so happy, I can’t remember being happier in my life than I have been the last eight to ten months.”

Watch the full interview on the BackChat podcast here:

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