Newly appointed Australian coach, Justin Langer said Steven Smith’s side were behaving like spoilt brats ahead of the controversial Cape Town Test match in March early this year.
Langer feels Smith wasn’t a strong leader and therefore couldn’t handle the situation.
Smith, his deputy David Warner and rookie batsman Cameron Bancroft were found guilty of tampering with the ball with a foreign object. The trio are currently serving their respective bans.
“The whispers were there,” Langer said about the side in a British Sky TV interview reported in Australian media Thursday.
Langer slams the team,
“Once upon a time, the opposition didn’t like us because we played really good, hard cricket — we were very skilful and we won a lot of games. It’s easy to dislike the opposition if they’re good, but there have been too many whispers in the last 12 months or so about the abuse on the field, or dare I say, the side playing like spoilt brats.”
He said as an ex-cricketer, he “nearly died” when he heard about the ‘Sandpaper-gate’ scandal.
“So you’ve got to wonder why it gets to that point? But it has happened now, and we have got to make sure we learn from it and get better from it because we can’t shy away either.”
Langer blames Smith
The series was a talking point more so because of the off-field antics. Warner and Quinton de Kock had an argument that rocked the spirit of the series.
When asked about the reason behind the hapless scenes, Langer pointed his fingers at the skipper.
“I think Steve Smith maybe just wasn’t strong enough in his leadership,” he said. “But he loves the game of cricket — he practises harder than anyone I’ve ever met — and he is a very, very nice young lad. There’s no doubt about that,” he said.