Big Cricket Thread

[Seadog]

Realistically I can see it going one of two ways. It's either a total unmitigated disaster or an incredible success until he does something stupid and the board is forced to sack him.

Warnie's catalogue of dick pics would fill 3 volumes.
Not a starter.

 

[DanWCE]

Warnie doesn't strike me as someone who would want the job. I think he's pretty comfortable getting paid plenty to talk shit about the Aussie team then heading to the pub each night. May not enjoy coming under critique himself.

 

[Monocle]

Serious question, are most here of the view that this is completely on the players and Langer isn't at fault at all?

No.

There is fault with all three parties to this cluster **** in no particular order:

The Players.​

Langer.​

CA.​

Langer has IMO opinion always come across as one pretty intense dude and full on with his style.
Nothing wrong with that method as a coach, however it only works for a limited time span, after which it wilts in effectiveness and looses some of its impact.
You can only roll out lines like " Elite Honest " for so long before you start sounding both ,off with the fairies and or full of shit.
You are either honest or your not.... sounds like one of those "half pregnant" lines of thought.

Langer has always been a strong willed , determined, bloody minded character, all the attributes that you would want in a Coach that needs to right a teams attitudes and behaviour, its these exact same character traits that made him such an outstanding and successful opening bat.

I am sure that there are lessons to be learnt by all parties, on how this could have been handled better and in a more civilised and professional manner.

I have no problem with CA wanting to move on from JL, however the manner in which they did it was nothing short of sub par, for that they have no wriggle room..........they looked incompetent.

They should have just had the balls to tell him that they would not be renewing his contract, but the bullshit 6 month offer that they tabled was a sign of weekness and done by a bunch of peeps that lacked the balls to make and deliver the hard message of their decision.

What it does do is put the players , ( who everyone knows have played a part in this coaching mutiny ), it places them right in the spot light and their future performances will be critiqued by many of Langers former team mates, that are now in plumb media jobs.
The players future, game day failures are going to be scrutinised to the n'th degree.
With a sustained number of overseas tour's to the sub continent in the next year, it's really going to see the player front and square in the cross hairs of the media if they fail.





Side Note: Langer seems to be wound up tighter than a banjo string.

 

[Ochre]

I'd rather a new variant before Warne coaching. Jfc

 

[Godfather32]

You guys know I was joking about Warnie right? No one on the planet (besides Warne) thinks that's a good idea

 

[Monocle]

You guys know I was joking about Warnie right? No one on the planet (besides Warne) thinks that's a good idea

I am sure that the English Tabloids think it's a good idea and would be wishing that it eventuates.

 

[Godfather32]

I am sure that the English Tabloids think it's a good idea and would be wishing that it eventuates.

I actually think it's what the players deserve and would be very funny to watch, but it won't happen....surely?

 

[Tugga27]

A well balanced article by Gideon Haigh I thought.
Behind a paywall so here it it.

Langer’s decency transcends his demise​

Pardon first a personal reminiscence. On 12 November 2012, my good friend Ed Cowan made a maiden Test hundred at the Gabba. That night I celebrated with him and his family.

As we walked into the restaurant, we saw Justin Langer, then Australia’s batting coach, sitting at another table. He gave a warm and friendly wave. By the time we were finished, an evening I’ll always remember, Langer had departed, but we learned that he had quietly paid the bill.

As a journalist, correctly always the outsider, I can scarcely claim to “know” Langer in any meaningful sense.

But I know enough of him from other sources to understand that the action was characteristic. Whatever his coaching acumen and match day temperament, Langer is a master of the nicety, the decent gesture, the caring thought.

Sometimes these become public: when Tim Paine was languishing in Hobart in November, cast aside by Cricket Australia, it was Langer who detoured to offer his comradeship. If sometimes to a fault, Langer is a loyal man, with firmly-held values, intent at all events on doing the right thing.

There was always a chance his tenure as coach would end abruptly. Four years, three formats, Covid, instability at Jolimont, continuity among the players, a new captain, a supine board: these were the preconditions of a mandate for change.

It’s an exaggeration – and a borrowing from football – that Langer “lost the dressing room”. A few were discontented. A few others struggled more than they should have. But it’s mainly that the dressing room was four years older than when Langer was contracted, less dependent, more confident, ready to be differently challenged. You should never wait for failure to change; by that point it can be too late. It also stands to reason that players will have views on the subject – informed views, too, if unavoidably narrow.

Good as the last six months have been, too, the on-field results from Langer’s term deserve no better than a B.

Fifteen Test wins and seven defeats is enhanced by six wins under lights, Australia more or less owning the pink-ball patent.

Australia played too few Tests away in that time, seven (two wins, three defeats), to improve meaningfully their poor overseas record.

In 47 one-day internationals (25 wins, 22 defeats) and 53 T20 internationals (26 wins, 25 defeats), meanwhile, we were at best a mid-table performer.

But considering from where Australia started, stinking from the head, Langer deserves considerable credit. He inherited a badly demoralised team without its two best batters, under an emergency captain who quickly needed replacing in two of the three formats.

Especially early, Langer cloaked players by his own reputation. As a coach who had the confidence of the cricket community, he won patience for a team in flux.

When they won, they also won well, at least unobjectionably and at times even graciously. The one serious disciplinary infraction of the last four years, which cost Paine the captaincy, predated Langer.

Four years ago, some observers had convinced themselves that Australia could win only by behaving like a pack of pricks. The evidence of Langer’s tenure as coach is otherwise. For their enhanced standing, then, Australia’s players may owe Langer more than they are prepared to acknowledge.

The main knock on Langer is that struggled to find the right distance from which to operate – he was either too close, or too far away – and that after four years he should have found that medium.

There’s some foundation to this, and also to the impression he was unhealthily in thrall to his baggy green brotherhood. One suspects that he rather lacked disinterested counsel.

At CA, Langer reported to a friend, high-performance manager Ben Oliver, who reported to someone with limited cricket experience, chief executive Nick Hockley, who reports to a board barely able to govern itself. His closest confidante was probably team manager Gavin Dovey, who may not have been the counterweight he needed.

In that sense, the system has really failed everyone, Langer and players alike. It’s scary to think how Cricket Australia would face a real crisis, given its propensity for turning problems into outright fiascos.

Even Pat Cummins has lost some of his gilt. He looked at the very least compromised, and at worst disingenuous. Generally speaking, when you say you have “huge respect” for a guy and that you “love working” with him, implicit in that is that you want them to continue, yet on the actual question his prevarications were worseningly awkward.

It was common to say last week that the silence otherwise among players was telling. Maybe the silence since has been just as telling. Could not one player have said a word in praise of Langer as he headed off into two weeks’ isolation after seven months on the road? It looks churlish and ungrateful, certainly compared to the grace of Langer’s letter of resignation.

Ricky Ponting has called the whole affair “embarrassing”; it might even be worse. Humiliating is the word that comes to mind. How did a good man end up being treated so heedlessly? If this is how CA treats people in the public gaze, it makes you wonder how it treats people in private. I can vouch for Langer treating them better.

 

[Wild Kelly]

South Africa should look at Langer. They're on the down but they also seem to have a few talented youngsters coming through thata coach like him could take to the next level.

Wouldn't comply with their quota system.

 

[Dazzler9]

Serious question, are most here of the view that this is completely on the players and Langer isn't at fault at all?

Why you no like JL ?

 

[Ochre]

Why you no like JL ?

He seems like an exceptional person, who has been treated very badly by CA, but I don't think he should be coaching Aus going forward.

 

[Mulldogg]

A well balanced article by Gideon Haigh I thought.
Behind a paywall so here it it.

Langer’s decency transcends his demise​

Pardon first a personal reminiscence. On 12 November 2012, my good friend Ed Cowan made a maiden Test hundred at the Gabba. That night I celebrated with him and his family.

As we walked into the restaurant, we saw Justin Langer, then Australia’s batting coach, sitting at another table. He gave a warm and friendly wave. By the time we were finished, an evening I’ll always remember, Langer had departed, but we learned that he had quietly paid the bill.

As a journalist, correctly always the outsider, I can scarcely claim to “know” Langer in any meaningful sense.

But I know enough of him from other sources to understand that the action was characteristic. Whatever his coaching acumen and match day temperament, Langer is a master of the nicety, the decent gesture, the caring thought.

Sometimes these become public: when Tim Paine was languishing in Hobart in November, cast aside by Cricket Australia, it was Langer who detoured to offer his comradeship. If sometimes to a fault, Langer is a loyal man, with firmly-held values, intent at all events on doing the right thing.

There was always a chance his tenure as coach would end abruptly. Four years, three formats, Covid, instability at Jolimont, continuity among the players, a new captain, a supine board: these were the preconditions of a mandate for change.

It’s an exaggeration – and a borrowing from football – that Langer “lost the dressing room”. A few were discontented. A few others struggled more than they should have. But it’s mainly that the dressing room was four years older than when Langer was contracted, less dependent, more confident, ready to be differently challenged. You should never wait for failure to change; by that point it can be too late. It also stands to reason that players will have views on the subject – informed views, too, if unavoidably narrow.

Good as the last six months have been, too, the on-field results from Langer’s term deserve no better than a B.

Fifteen Test wins and seven defeats is enhanced by six wins under lights, Australia more or less owning the pink-ball patent.

Australia played too few Tests away in that time, seven (two wins, three defeats), to improve meaningfully their poor overseas record.

In 47 one-day internationals (25 wins, 22 defeats) and 53 T20 internationals (26 wins, 25 defeats), meanwhile, we were at best a mid-table performer.

But considering from where Australia started, stinking from the head, Langer deserves considerable credit. He inherited a badly demoralised team without its two best batters, under an emergency captain who quickly needed replacing in two of the three formats.

Especially early, Langer cloaked players by his own reputation. As a coach who had the confidence of the cricket community, he won patience for a team in flux.

When they won, they also won well, at least unobjectionably and at times even graciously. The one serious disciplinary infraction of the last four years, which cost Paine the captaincy, predated Langer.

Four years ago, some observers had convinced themselves that Australia could win only by behaving like a pack of pricks. The evidence of Langer’s tenure as coach is otherwise. For their enhanced standing, then, Australia’s players may owe Langer more than they are prepared to acknowledge.

The main knock on Langer is that struggled to find the right distance from which to operate – he was either too close, or too far away – and that after four years he should have found that medium.

There’s some foundation to this, and also to the impression he was unhealthily in thrall to his baggy green brotherhood. One suspects that he rather lacked disinterested counsel.

At CA, Langer reported to a friend, high-performance manager Ben Oliver, who reported to someone with limited cricket experience, chief executive Nick Hockley, who reports to a board barely able to govern itself. His closest confidante was probably team manager Gavin Dovey, who may not have been the counterweight he needed.

In that sense, the system has really failed everyone, Langer and players alike. It’s scary to think how Cricket Australia would face a real crisis, given its propensity for turning problems into outright fiascos.

Even Pat Cummins has lost some of his gilt. He looked at the very least compromised, and at worst disingenuous. Generally speaking, when you say you have “huge respect” for a guy and that you “love working” with him, implicit in that is that you want them to continue, yet on the actual question his prevarications were worseningly awkward.

It was common to say last week that the silence otherwise among players was telling. Maybe the silence since has been just as telling. Could not one player have said a word in praise of Langer as he headed off into two weeks’ isolation after seven months on the road? It looks churlish and ungrateful, certainly compared to the grace of Langer’s letter of resignation.

Ricky Ponting has called the whole affair “embarrassing”; it might even be worse. Humiliating is the word that comes to mind. How did a good man end up being treated so heedlessly? If this is how CA treats people in the public gaze, it makes you wonder how it treats people in private. I can vouch for Langer treating them better.

Great read. Very balanced as you say.

 

[Truckosaurus]

He seems like an exceptional person, who has been treated very badly by CA, but I don't think he should be coaching Aus going forward.

That's pretty much my view. Time will tell if getting the 'players' choice' coach works out in the end, but this is just another in a long line of incidents that CA have handled about as badly as humanly possible.

 

[Chris_6678]

‘What the hell is going on?’: Clarke reveals the one question Cummins must answer after ‘nasty’ divorce

‘What the hell is going on?’: Clarke reveals the one question Cummins must answer after ‘nasty’ divorce

www.foxsports.com.au

Good article from Clarke.

 

[Tugga27]

Anyone else disappointed that not many players have come out and thanked JL?

I would've thought the WA players like Richardson and Agar could've posted something.

Maybe because they're not entrenched in the side has something to do with it.

 

[Dazzler9]

 

[Godfather32]

What even is the batsman's argument there?

 

[Dazzler9]

What even is the batsman's argument there?

He wasn't looking up in time, but he needed to instantly step away when he did look up. He held his position for a fraction too long and by the time the ball was bowled it was too late to pull away. Out.

 

[Ochre]

I don't know if the umpire can give that not out, but the fielding captain should be calling him back imo

 

[Godfather32]

He wasn't looking up in time, but he needed to instantly step away when he did look up. He held his position for a fraction too long and by the time the ball was bowled it was too late to pull away. Out.

I agree, I mean he was facing up and tapping the bat on the wicket, that's clearly an indication you're ready for the bowler

 

[Godfather32]

I don't know if the umpire can give that not out, but the fielding captain should be calling him back imo

Nah, you don't get a free pass for being a moron

 

[Ambrose Burnside]

Just mankad everyone and be done with it.

 

[Into The Black]

Nah, you don't get a free pass for being a moron

Hang on sunshine, this is the age of participation certificates. A little cuddle, dry the tears and let him have another go. aww

 

[Agent93]

Hang on sunshine, this is the age of participation certificates. A little cuddle, dry the tears and let him have another go. aww

Not any more! It's Lucky's Dad's rules for pass the parcel now!

 

[Mulldogg]

Anyone have an explanation for how Marcus Harris made the Test squad for the Pakistan tour?