Ponting, Hayden slam Cricket Australia after Langer’s resignation

Former Australian cricketer Ricky Ponting on Saturday termed the resignation of Australian head coach Justin Langer as a “really sad day”, while another legend Matthew Hayden slammed the Test captain. Pat Cummins For failing to publicly support the 51-year-old Langer to get a new contract.

Langer took charge of the Australian team in 2018 following the ‘sandpaper gate’ scandal, and while he was reportedly unpopular with some players in the side, he helped the team win their maiden ICC T20 World Cup title in the UAE last November. was directed to. years and the most recent 4-0 Ashes win.

Langer resigned from his position on Saturday, unhappy with Cricket Australia’s (CA) offer of a short-term contract extension after a seven-hour board meeting.

Both Ponting and Hayden are Langer’s former teammates and close friends and slammed CA for handling the matter less than two months before the start of one of the most important Test and One Day International (ODI) series against Pakistan .

“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, the six months have been really bad. I think the way Cricket Australia has handled some of the better guys in Australian cricket, Justin Langer and Tim Paine, I think it’s almost embarrassing. The way he has handled those two cases.”

Paine stepped down as Australian Test captain a few weeks before the start of Ashes After a sexting scandal surfaced last year. He later took an indefinite break from all forms of cricket.

A report from cricket.com.au said a statement from CA did not address the specifics of Langer’s future review, except that he was offered a short-term contract extension.

“CA would like to thank Justin for his outstanding leadership as he coached the Australian men’s team in 2018 and led the team to the T20 World Cup title and 4-0 Ashes win last year,” a CA statement said. guided.”

“It was absolutely clear that no one supported him,” an emotional Hayden told ABC.

“If you listen to the Australian captain (Cummins) that day and don’t mention any kind of praise or support for him, I don’t think (Justin) is going very well. That would be extremely sad. Complete Hayden said, “Things just happen to be orchestrated, basically last winter all this garbage (about Langer’s coaching style) started coming out. You could see the writing was on the wall.”

Cummins has never publicly supported Langer’s contract extension, and as recently as 2 February he refrained from speaking on the head coach’s future, saying it is for CA to decide. “It’s part of the speculation that I don’t think is really healthy. I don’t want to add to it. It’s Cricket Australia’s job. It’s not my job,” Cummins was quoted as saying by ABC News.

Langer reportedly had an uneasy relationship with some of the team’s players, and things boiled over after Australia’s loss to Bangladesh in a T20I series last year. Cricket Australia management and the Australian cricket team leadership group had to sit down to resolve the crisis.

“Deep down, Pat (Cummins) would know this day was coming,” Ponting said. “If he went on the front foot and supported Justin, they would be in a position where they couldn’t get past him.

“If it’s not just him, if there are other players that are coming up to him and telling him that maybe they think Justin isn’t the right guy, I think that would have really put Pat in a difficult position as well.” Is.

“I’m very close to Justin, we’re like brothers, but I haven’t gotten into it too much because… there’s no way I could have changed the way I looked. What happened today, I have felt that it has been heading towards that for quite some time,” Ponting said.

(IANS report)