Justin Langer told Cricket Australia (CA) that he quit as national team coach because he realised he no longer had the support of several players and board members, according to a report in The Australian on Sunday.
The newspaper said it had obtained a copy of Langer’s Saturday resignation email to CA boss Nick Hockley.
“Last night (Friday) I was offered a short-term contract until the end of the T20 World Cup in Australia, with the sentiment of ‘going out on a high’,” Langer wrote, according to the newspaper.
“After careful consideration I have decided not to accept this contract renewal, and as a result I believe it is in everyone’s best interests for the Australian cricket team to begin the next chapter immediately.
“If media reports are correct, several senior players and a couple of support staff don’t support me moving forward, and it is now apparent the CA board, and you Nick, are also keen to see the team move in another direction. I respect that decision.”
Langer also offered his apology but stressed that he values “honesty, respect, trust, truth and performance” but some people might have taken it as being “too intense” in his working style.
“My life has been built on values of honesty, respect, trust, truth, and performance and if that comes across as ‘too intense’ at times, I apologise,” wrote Langer in his resignation letter, according to abc.net.au.
Langer took over as national coach in 2018 in the wake of a ball-tampering scandal and most recently presided over a 4-0 defeat of England in the Ashes Test series.
Australia also won last year’s Twenty20 World Cup for the first time under Langer but there have been reports of player discontent over his coaching style.
He has already been mentioned as a candidate for the vacant England head coach job following the departure of Chris Silverwood.
According to The Australian report, Langer left with his head held high.
“Whilst it is not up to me to judge, I hope Australians respect what has been achieved over the last four years in Australian cricket,” he said.
“From Day One I believed it was possible to both win and play the game in the spirit that is now expected from our supporters.
“For the last four years it has been proven this can be achieved and I am very proud of the team for their efforts on and off the cricket field. I hope we have made Australians proud and earned respect from countries around the world.
“I am grateful that today, I am going out on a high. Hopefully a good job has been done and I wish the team every success for the future.”
There had been speculation about Langer’s future in the role since last summer’s home Test series loss to India, when reports of discontent among players about Langer’s “intensity” emerged.
Langer has received an outpouring of support from former teammates and ex-Australia players, including Ricky Ponting and Matthew Hayden.
“It is a really sad day as far as Australian cricket is concerned and if you look back it has been a really poor six months on the whole in the way that Cricket Australia has handled some of the better people in the Australian cricket — Justin Langer and Tim Paine — and I think it’s been almost embarrassing the way they have handled those two cases,” Ponting told ABC Radio on Saturday, as reported by a cricket-specific website.
“He mustn’t have had the full backing of the board. Me knowing Justin the way that I do, he was very keen to continue in the role, as he should have been after what’s been the best coaching period of his international career having just won the T20 World Cup and then the 4-0 result in the Ashes,” he added.
“It seems like a very strange time for a coach to be departing. Reading the tea leaves it sounds like a few — and as he (Langer) says to me a small group in the playing group and a couple of other staff around the team — haven’t entirely loved the way he has gone about it,” said Ponting.