Steve Waugh says Cricket Australia (CA) provided “no clarity” in its explanation of why it only offered Justin Langer a short-term contract extension as men’s head coach.
Steve Waugh’s comments came after Cricket Australia chief executive Nick Hockley’s media conference on Saturday, in which he defended the decision to offer Justin Langer a six-month contract extension, saying he did not meet the team’s “needs going forward”. Justin Langer’s contract was set to expire in June 2022.
Steve Waugh: Cricket Australia Didn’t Provide Clarity For Offering Justin Langer A Short term Contract Extension
Justin Langer announced his resignation on Saturday morning, having rejected CA’s offer. Nick Hockley said his organization made the offer of a short-term extension as part of what it described as a period of “transition”, a term he regularly used throughout his media conference.
Steve Waugh posted a photo of a handwritten note containing words such as “transition” and “evolve”. The former Test captain Steve Waugh wrote in his post he did not understand the reasons CA cited as to why Justin Langer was not in its long-term plans.
“Plenty of Buzz words but no clarity as to why Justin Langer is no longer deemed worthy of the coaching role,” Steve Waugh wrote.
“Not sure how the team evolves and transitions form being loved by the public and being ranked number one is test cricket and the World Champions in T20,” said Steve Waugh.
John Buchanan, who coached Justin Langer as a player in the national team, said Nick Hockley had sent out mixed signals when explaining CA’s decision-making.
“Nick Hockley basically outlined everything Justin did well, and then basically said he is unable to help the team evolve,” he said.
CA had already been strongly criticized by former Australian Test players such as Ricky Ponting, Mathew Hayden and Mitchell Johnson, who highlighted the success the national team had enjoyed under Justin Langer since he became head coach in 2018 in the wake of the ball-tampering scandal. Australia retained the Ashes in 2019 and defeated England 4-0 in the recent series on home soil, while it also won the T20 World Cup late last year.
Nick Hockley: Cricket Australia Looked At Short Term Extension
Nick Hockley said CA was “disappointed” by Justin Langer’s decision, as it wanted him to coach Australia in its defence of its T20 World Cup in October and November. But he said Justin Langer was not in CA’s long-term plans as head coach.
“We were pretty clear with Justin that it was for a period of transition,” Hockley said.
“We want to be clear and respectful to him. Justin has done a fantastic job. When we sat down and looked at the needs of the team going forward, we thought that the team has evolved. The team’s needs or requirements of the head coach had evolved, so we were clear that we were looking at a short-term extension.”
Nick Hockley confirmed Test captain Pat Cummins and white-ball skipper Aaron Finch were consulted as part of the evaluation of Justin Langer’s coaching tenure. Pat Cummins failed to endorse Justin Langer as head coach in media appearances this week.
“Over the course of the summer — after some very difficult discussions — everyone has really stepped up,” Hockley said.
“We’ve got a much clearer view of how people are stepping up and taking accountability for their own roles and responsibilities. And on that basis — and I spoke to the (national) selectors and more broadly across the staff — we felt that the time was now to start a process of transition.”
Nick Hockley said the men’s team had “evolved” during Justin Langer’s tenure to the point CA felt a fresh approach was needed in the coming years. Nick Hockley said the leadership shown by the national selection panel and assistant coaches meant CA wanted responsibilities to be shared. He said CA wanted to adopt a “sustainable model”.
“We are now evolving to the next phase of a more shared leadership model,” Hockley said.
“Justin’s contract was always for a four-year period. If we think about the journey when Justin Langer started, he deserves the most enormous amount of credit for where he has brought the team from and to. Now is the time … to start a period of transition.”
Andrew McDonald has been appointed as interim head coach. Nick Hockley said CA would look to appoint a permanent replacement for Justin Langer while continuing “to take a very project-focused approach”.