Former South Australian quick Chadd Sayers has made the picture surrounding Justin Langer a little clearer.
Langer’s exit from the Australian setup came as an abrupt shock to cricket fans around the country, given the weight of success achieved in the previous months.
The champion opener had led Australia through several ups and downs but had the team flying when he stepped down.
It’s often said that winning papers over all cracks, however that couldn’t be said for the Australian team and Sayers wasn’t impressed with how it played out.
“I think the way things have been handled hasn’t been great, has it? As a past player and a cricket lover,” Sayers told SEN SA Breakfast.
“The T20 World Cup, an Ashes win, they seem to be going in the right track.
“It is interesting what’s going on and I guess over the next month or so we’ll see how many are cleaned out and who the new coach is.
“It’s a little bit of a disruption, going over to Pakistan as well next month … it will be a bloody tough one.”
With almost three weeks since Langer resigned, it’s still unclear who in the playing group forced Cricket Australia’s hand in managing him out of the job.
Australian captain Pat Cummins spoke to the media earlier this month and suggested a different style would benefit the players, however he mentioned no names behind those ideas.
Shane Warne pointed the finger at the ‘New South Wales mafia’ on The Follow-On podcast as to who was behind Langer’s resignation.
Meanwhile, when asked for the “inside information” on the situation, Sayers insisted South Australian teammates Alex Carey and Travis Head were not responsible.
“I did try to pick the bones with the two SA boys and those two absolutely loved Justin Langer and the way he went about his coaching,” Sayers continued.
“They wouldn’t let too much out of the bag, but looking from the outside in, it looked player-driven, didn’t it?
“I guess the comments from Patty Cummins about a new style, in my mind I don’t really know what that means.
“The style that they’re playing at the moment is a pretty good one, so why would you want to change?”
Andrew McDonald has taken over in Langer’s absence on an interim basis.