Veteran News Corp cricket writer Robert Craddock believes Usman Khawaja could have prevented much of the instability during Justin Langer’s tenure as coach of the Australian cricket team.
Langer served as coach of the squad from 2018 until 2022, of which Khawaja was absent for nearly half of, having been absent from international cricket from mid-2020 until 2022.
Langer has recently spoken out about his time at the helm, criticising both players and Cricket Australia higher-ups, with Craddock stating these comments revealed the disconnect between the coach and players.
“I just felt the week summed up why there was so much anxiety about Langer amongst the players,” he said on SEN Mornings.
“I like the guy and there’s a lot of goodness in him, I think he can coach, but the word we always use, volatility, it was on display.
“It’s that sort of emotional extremity that really does grind down players, I think that was the snapshot we got of it in the week.”
In Craddock’s view, the presence of opener Khawaja would have helped steady the ship and eliminate some of that volatility.
“I really thought they missed Usman Khawaja because he dropped out of Test cricket for two years whilst all this was happening,” he said.
“Khawaja was the one guy who pulled players into line on one side of the argument but also was brave enough to say to Langer, ‘Mate, players are walking on eggshells around you’.
“I’d tell you now Khawaja is just dead straight, and if he steps on your toes, he’ll happily cop it for just being honest, but he disappeared for two years when all this was happening, so there was no one sort of straightening up the arguments.”
Despite Langer’s sacking, Craddock believes it was the right time for him to go, agreeing with the idea that the coach of the Australian cricket team shouldn’t have a tenure of over four years.
“The thing is, if you know you’re only there for four years, you can give it absolutely everything… but if it’s this interminable thing that just goes on and on, by the end of it they develop the thousand-mile stare… they’re looking at you but they’re not looking at you,” he said.
“That’s one of the reasons Usman Khawaja went to Andrew McDonald and said, ‘Mate if you’re going to do three formats you cannot stay any longer than four years, because I’ve seen a million of them and they all get burnt out and bitter’.
“(Khawaja) said, ‘I don’t care whether you’re the best coach or the worst coach… but you can’t stay longer than four years,’ and I just thought it was good advice.
“You see these guys come into the job and you’re away for hundreds of days a year, and you’re in this bubble and you can’t see things clearly.
“That’s why the ball tampering thing happened because it was guys going around in this little clique and developing conspiracy theories and you don’t know fact from fiction half the time.”
Craddock went on to question the leadership structure of cricket, believing that the sport “has never quite worked out what a coach should be”.
“All the AFL coaches, rugby league coaches, yes you are the boss, you’ve got the leadership group there but there’s the pecking order, who runs a cricket team, you tell me, I’m still working it out,” he said.
“I always reckon the captain should rate ahead of the coach because I think when the coach thinks he’s in charge, it always leads to problems.
“The captain is the one on the team for five days during a Test and he should be the one with the final say, cricket is just different to other sports.
“Whenever there’s a coach who thinks he’s above the captain, it just never seems to end well, that’s what I’ve found.”
Australia is currently preparing for a Test series against the West Indies, getting underway on November 30.