Langer doubles down on denial of rift with Aussie players as questions raised over initial accusations

Justin Langer has doubled down in his denial of a rift between himself and Australian players in an extensive column for the West Australian.

Langer raised eyebrows earlier this week when blasting unnamed “cowards” in the Australian setup for leaking information against him while the West Australian was in charge of the men’s side.

The now 50-year-old’s final months were plagued by multiple reports of players unhappy with Langer’s coaching methods.

The former opener was only offered a six-month contract to remain in his job earlier this year despite a successful tenure, an offer he chose to turn down.

Langer also appeared to criticise Pat Cummins for failing to give him sufficient feedback. But the former coach distanced himself from those comments when appearing on Channel 7 on Thursday night and went again in a newspaper column on Saturday morning.

“This rubbish dialogue of me fighting with the current team must stop. Simply because it is not true. They are my friends. They are like my younger brothers. Anything said to the contrary is false,” Langer wrote.

“For four years we drank, ate, celebrated, strategised and lived together.

“We fought back from ‘sandpaper gate’ and Covid together and we won the T20 World Cup and Ashes together.

“Was it always perfect? No, it wasn’t. What business, what team is always perfect? I have never met a leader who is every single person’s cup of tea. Again, that’s life.”

Langer also revealed he’d sent audio of the pre-recorded podcast to Cummins, Aaron Finch and Cricket Australia high-performance manager Ben Horne, stating “contrary to what has been reported, these men I respect and like”.

On Cummins, Langer wrote: “For the record, I am a great admirer of Pat Cummins. Not only is he an outstanding cricketer but he is also a very good human being.”

It was widely believed at the time of Langer’s first comments that he was criticising the players for leaking information against him.

However, former Australian Cricketer Bryce McGain – speaking to Langer’s comments on Channel 7 - suggested that perhaps the subjects of Langer’s outburst were unclear.

“You can’t be more unequivocal than that, can you? ‘I don’t have an issue with Pat Cummins’,” McGain noted on SEN’s Sportsday about Langer’s comments.

“When you think about what he said in the initial part, I think he’s got some issues with some others who may not have been quite as upfront as Pat has shown to be.”

But McGain also believes that Langer’s initial comments show he still has a disdain for the way he was treated, despite his backtracking comments in recent days.

“I felt that he still had an axe to grind, that’s what I heard,” he stated.

“The fact he was calling some players cowards that couldn't talk to his face about that, whether that be managing up, the people above him he reports to or those within the inner sanctum of the playing group, it sounded a bit like the players didn’t have that courage. And he did call them cowards, he was pretty direct.”

Cricket Australia chief executive Nick Hockley reacted to Langer’s initial comments by describing stating there was “a number of inaccuracies” in his details.