Former skipper Ricky Ponting on Saturday (February 5) expressed his disappointment after Justin Langer’s resignation as Australia head coach, five months before the end of his tenure.

Unhappy with the short-term contract extension offered by Cricket Australia, Langer resigned from his post.

Read Also: Andrew McDonald appointed Australia’s interim head coach

While Ponting called it "a really sad day" for Australian cricket, another Aussie legend Matthew Hayden criticized Test skipper Pat Cummins for failing to publicly endorse Langer to get a new contract.

Langer had taken charge of the Australian team in 2018 following the 'Sandpaper gate' scandal. During his tenure, Australia won their maiden T20 World Cup title in UAE last year, drew the Ashes in England in 2019, and registered a 4-0 Ashes victory at home recently.

"I think it's a really sad day as far as Australian cricket is concerned," Ponting told ABC radio on Saturday. "And if you look back, it's been a really poor six months. I think of the way that Cricket Australia as a whole have handled some of the better people in Australian cricket, Justin Langer and Tim Paine, I think it's been almost embarrassing with the way they've handled those two cases."

Notably, Paine had stepped down as Australia's Test captain weeks before the Ashes 2021-22 over a sexting scandal. He later decided to step away from cricket citing an "indefinite mental health break".

A CA statement did not "address specifics of the review into Langer's future, other than to confirm he had been offered a short-term contract extension," a report in cricket.com.au said.

"CA would like to thank Justin for his outstanding leadership since he became Australian men's team coach in 2018 and for guiding the team to the T20 World Cup title last year and the 4-0 Ashes victory," the CA statement read.

"It was absolutely clear that no one backed him," Hayden told the ABC.

"If you listen to the Australian captain (Cummins) the other day not mention once any kind of commendation or support for him, I don't think (Justin) would be going very well at all. That would be extremely hurtful. The whole thing just reeks of being orchestrated, basically from the moment all of this garbage started coming out (about Langer's coaching style) in winter last year. You could see the writing was on the wall," he added.

According to the reports, Langer had an uneasy relationship with some players in the squad, and things went downhill following Australia's away defeat to Bangladesh in a T20I series last year.

"Deep down, Pat (Cummins) might have known that this day was coming," Ponting said. "If he had have gone on the front foot and endorsed Justin, they would have been in a position where they wouldn't have been able to move on from him.

"If it's not just him, if there are other players that are coming to him and letting him know that maybe they feel that Justin is not the right man, I think that actually puts Pat in a difficult position as well.

"I am very close to Justin, we're like brothers, but I've not got too heavily involved in this because... there's no way that I could change the way that this looked like it was heading. What's happened today, I've sort of felt that has been heading that way for quite a while," added Ponting.

(With IANS inputs)