Australian men’s cricket team coach Justin Langer has opened up on footage featured in Amazon documentary The Test, sharing painful memories of the 2019 Ashes tour.
The Test followed the Australian team from the appointment of Langer and current captain Tim Paine, as they strove to rebuild the reputation following the ball-tampering scandal of 2018.
Viewers were taken inside the frantic finish against England at Headingley in 2019, famed for Ben Stokes and Jack Leach putting on 76 runs for the final wicket to eke out an unlikely win.
Veteran spinner Nathan Lyon fluffed an opportunity to run Leach out with the hosts needing just two runs for victory, and Langer took his frustration out on a nearby waste receptacle.
“I was able to watch each episode before (it premiered), they said ‘look if you want to change anything’,” Langer revealed on SEN WA's Gilly and Goss.
“I was sitting on my front lawn, I rang the producer and I said ‘mate, you can’t put the bit in where I kick the bin down… people will think I’m a psycho’.
“He goes ‘mate, did you see what you did next? You picked up all the rubbish. You talk about humility…’
“It’s one of the most-asked questions about the Test documentary, ‘what happened when you kicked the bin,’ so I’m glad they kept it in there.
“As soon as I did it I just felt so bad.”
Langer has experienced other lows as a coach, his intense manner scrutinised over the home summer as Australia endured a series defeat to a decimated India.
The Headingley loss will be hard to top, however.
“Later on that night, we’d just lost this Test match and I was sitting in this little hotel room in Leeds and I’m on FaceTime to Sue, my wife,” he recalled.
“She asked ‘what are you doing?’ I looked and I was drinking scotch.
“She said ‘you don’t drink!’
“I said ‘I do tonight, baby’.
“That was the worst night of my coaching career…”