Cricket Australia chief of the selection panel, George Bailey has rubbished former Australia team head coach Justin Langer’s claims that there were reports of some current Australian players and support staff members not wanting him to continue in his position any longer.
Langer quit as head coach of the national team on February 5, rejecting CA’s offer of a contract extension until the T20 World Cup 2022 at home. Langer was hoping for another full-term contract and some even called CA’s offer an insult to Langer, under whom Australia recently won the T20 World Cup 2021 and the Ashes at home, decimating England 4-0.
"I feel for him. Absolutely no one deserves to have the saga that has been played out as publicly as it has been. Clearly, he didn't get the length of contract extension offer that he was after so it hasn't been ideal, but I don't subscribe to the fact that it was individuals that were key to making the decision,” Bailey was quoted as saying by Reuters.
Speculation over Langer's position at the helm of the team had been growing for months amid reports of player discontent over his coaching style. The former opener, in his resignation letter to Cricket Australia Chief Executive Nick Hockley, had stated that “several senior players and a couple of support staff don't support me moving forward.”
Langer was named head coach in the aftermath of the 2018 ball-tampering scandal in South Africa. Bailey praised the work he had done to regain public support across all formats of the game.
"(Langer) wanted the team to earn respect with Australians and he wanted to develop great cricketers and great people and I think he has absolutely done that. The team have done that, JL has done that, the staff around the team have done that. The group, the individuals, all three teams are in a very different space where they are today to where they were four years ago. (Langer) absolutely has to take an enormous amount of credit for that and I hope he's immensely proud of it,” Bailey signed off.
