(Reuters) – Selection panel chief George Bailey has denied Justin Langer’s claims that a lack of backing from senior players and support staff was responsible for the former opening batsman’s departure as Australia coach.
Langer quit the post on Saturday despite leading Australia to victory at the Twenty20 World Cup before handing England a 4-0 defeat in the Ashes when he was only offered a six-month contract extension until October’s Twenty20 World Cup finals.
“I feel for him,” Bailey told reporters on Tuesday. “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.”
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.
He claimed in his resignation letter to Cricket Australia Chief Executive Nick Hockley “several senior players and a couple of support staff don’t support me moving forward”.
Langer was appointed in 2018 in the aftermath of a ball-tampering scandal in South Africa and 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,” he said.
“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.”
(Reporting by Michael Church in Hong Kong; Editing by Stephen Coates)
