'I’m Sorry Pat But That’s Garbage': Matthew Hayden Slams Australia Test Captain Over Justin Langer Fiasco
Published - 06 Feb 2022, 11:11 AM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 01:04 AM
Former Australian batsman Matthew Hayden rebuked Australia’s Test captain Pat Cummins’ statement on Justin Langer’s exit.
After days of speculation over Langer’s contract with Cricket Australia, the former opening batter tendered his resignation from the head coach role on Saturday (February 5).
Langer’s four years of contract with Cricket Australia was supposed to end in June with Australia’s tour of Pakistan could have been his last task.
It was absolutely clear that no one backed Justin Langer: Matthew Hayden
Hayden, who was Langer’s opening partner during their playing time with Australia, lashed out at Cummins for not backing the coach. Hayden rubbish Cummins’ statement and called it garbage.
“It was absolutely clear that no one backed him. If you listen to the Australian captain speak the other day, there was not one mention of any sort of commendation or support,” Hayden told ABC Radio on Saturday, as quoted by Fox Sports Australia.
“That would have been extremely hurtful. How do you reckon he’d be going? To hear the Australian captain on Sunrise offer no support and commendation. How would you feel?”
“And now we hear Pat Cummins saying, ‘This is a high-performance environment, we all go through a high-performance review’. I’m sorry Pat but that’s garbage … this just reeks of being orchestrated,” he further mentioned.
You could see that the writing was on the wall: Matthew Hayden
Cricket Australia had a lengthy meeting with Langer on Friday but the two parties couldn’t pen a suitable deal. The Australian board stated that they offered Langer a short-term deal but that wasn’t sufficient for him.
Langer was appointed as the head coach of Australia after the infamous ball-tampering scandal in Cape Town. Under him, Australia retained the Ashes in England (in 2019), won the ODI series in India (3-2 in 2019), T20 World Cup 2021 (in UAE) and The Ashes in Down Under (last series in charge).
“This was a bloke (Langer) that won the Ashes, stayed back basically in Melbourne for the entire time while this dragged on for a month. The whole thing just reeks of being orchestrated from basically the moment all of this garbage started coming out in the middle of last year,” said Hayden.
“You could see that the writing was on the wall. If I had a bet back then that Justin Langer would have retained his spot at the end of his contract, I would have put my whole life’s savings on him not doing it,” he added.
Assistant coach Andrew McDonald was named as the interim coach, he will take the charge of the Australian national team for the five-match T20I series against Sri Lanka, starting on February 11 in Sydney.
Also Read: Steve Waugh Criticizes Cricket Australia Following Justin Langer’s Resignation
