Tim Paine slams Cricket Australia over 'embarrassing' Justin Langer saga
Former Test captain Tim Paine has savaged Cricket Australia over its treatment of Justin Langer, describing the messy saga as “embarrassing and unprofessional”.
Langer sensationally quit his role as head coach of the Australian cricket team in February after being offered an insulting six-month contract extension, despite guiding his side to Ashes glory and a historic T20 World Cup triumph.
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A rumoured breakdown in the relationship between Langer and a core group of senior players - some of whom expressed concerns over his 'intense' management style - factored into CA's derisory contract offer and the veteran mentor's decision to eventually walk away.
Writing in his new autobiography, The Price Paid, the former Aussie skipper suggested there was an ulterior motive behind CA's questionable treatment of Langer.
“The news came that they’d offered him a six-month contract. What the f**k?” Paine wrote.
“To add to the insult, it had been dragged out. Time was wasted. I’ll never back down from my opinion that it was poorly handled, embarrassing and unprofessional.
“I think they knew he wouldn’t accept it and then they wouldn’t have to sack him. It was the easy way out. It was upsetting to see a man who cared so much treated like that. It hurt him deeply.
“The bottom line in all of this is, whether he was kept on or not, he should have been treated better.”
Paine recalls a conversation he had with Langer before his untimely exit, about how the former Test opener's coaching style negatively impacted on some of the players.
"It was no secret what the problems were — basically, it was just about his intensity, the boys wanted him to chill out a little bit, be less controlling.
"JL (Langer) said, ‘That’s how I am,’ and I replied, ‘I know, but it’s a bit much.’
“After I spoke to the players I rang JL and said that they were on board, but looking back I don’t think they all were.
“Then there was an interview where JL said something about being himself and not changing, which didn’t help things.”
Paine went on to reveal that he was tasked by CA chair Earl Eddings and chief executive Nick Hockley to present Langer with the "unvarnished truth” about the playing group's feelings towards him.
The 37-year-old said despite the "confronting" nature of the conversation, Langer took the criticism better than Paine ever imagined.
“The next phone call was the hard one,” Paine wrote.
“I lay awake that night sweating about it. I made notes about exactly what I had to say to JL.
“Then I made the call and laid it all on the table, in forensic detail, everything I had heard, what the boys were saying.
“It was pretty confronting for him, I could hear that in his voice, and I braced myself for his comeback. Nine times out of ten in that situation, you’d expect the other person to be angry.
“But JL’s reaction was to tell me, ‘No one has ever spoken to me like this, nobody has ever been this honest,’ and I remember him saying that it was like I’d given him a gift. The way he took it spoke volumes for the man.”
Tim Paine makes explosive ball-tampering accusations
Paine's new autobiography also contained explosive claims that South Africa were also guilty of ball-tampering, during the infamous 2018 series that saw Aussie trio Cameron Bancroft, Steve Smith and David Warner banned over the cheating plot.
"I saw it happen in the fourth Test of that series," Paine wrote after allegedly seeing a South Africa player pulling apart the seam of the ball.
"Think about that. After everything that had happened in Cape Town, after all the headlines and bans and carry on.
"I was standing at the bowlers' end in the next Test when a shot came up on the screen of a South African player at mid-off having a huge crack at the ball.
"The television director, who had played an active role in catching out Cam, immediately pulled the shot off the screen.
"We went to the umpires about it, which might seem a bit poor, but we'd been slaughtered and were convinced they'd been up to it since the first Test.
"But the footage got lost. As it would."
with AAP
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