Australia Test captain Pat Cummins praised Justin Langer for doing a “fantastic” job as head coach but said it was only fair for Cricket Australia to conduct an evaluation process before making a decision on renewing his contract.
Langer, whose contract is set to expire mid-year, is hoping for an extension despite no players endorsing him publicly to continue in the role.
“It lies in Cricket Australia’s hands. JL (Langer) has been doing a fantastic job. He has been there for four years,” Cummins told reporters yesterday.
“His contract is obviously up soon. So they’re just going through an evaluation process at the moment, which I think is fair and the right thing to do.
“We all get evaluated all the time as cricketers, it’s part of a high performance environment.”
Australian media reported this week that Langer reacted angrily during a recent meeting with Cricket Australia over his contract and had been asked to reapply for the role. CA refuted the reports.
Senior players and Cricket Australia managers met last year amid reports Langer’s intense coaching style had rubbed players the wrong way.
Australia’s coaching set-up was subsequently tweaked, with Langer taking less of a hands-on role and assistants Andrew McDonald and Michael Di Venuto taking a greater share of the coaching burden.
Under the new arrangement, Australia won their first T20 World Cup in November and thrashed England 4-0 in the Ashes over the home summer.
Former Australia captain Mark Taylor, who served on Cricket Australia’s board, said the governing body should have resolved Langer’s contract situation by now.
“There’s too many ‘ifs’ now and not enough ‘this is what’s going to happen’,” Taylor told radio station Triple M.
“First and foremost look after the incumbent and a legend of the game in Justin Langer and then announce the other coach – if that’s what’s going to happen,” Taylor said.
Cummins was adamant yesterday it was not his job to say if Langer had his full support.
“It’s part of speculation which I don’t think is healthy. I don’t think it helps anyone, so I don’t want to add to it,” Cummins said while launching a solar power initiative. “That is Cricket Australia’s job, it’s not my job. I have really liked my time working with JL. We have had an evaluation process, I have been part of that. A lot of other players and staff have been part of that. I’ve got huge respect for JL, I really like working with him. But it’s not my call.”
Despite Test captain Cummins choosing his words carefully to talk about Langer getting an extension, the current Australian coach has a number of supporters with virtually all of his ex-teammates vocal in his favour, including Ricky Ponting who told cricket.com.au after the Ashes series win that he could not see how the coach’s contract is not renewed.
“I can’t see how Justin can’t go on,” Ponting said last month. “The way that I would equate it is if Justin is not to be offered another deal on the back of the best coaching year of his life, that’s like (Ashes player-of-the-series) Travis Head not getting offered a contract next year.
“(The input of) a couple of senior players would be enough. I don’t see why a fringe player (should get a say). I don’t understand why they’d even be asking a lot of the players to be honest.
“Pat fine, Finchy fine – the captains of the teams respectively, maybe a couple more of the senior guys – but that’s all. I don’t think it needs to go any further than that.”
Test skipper Pat Cummins
