Newly appointed Australia coach Justin Langer will charge his players with winning back the \u201crespect\u201d of the cricket world after a ball-tampering scandal left the team\u2019s reputation in ruins.<\/p>\n
Long touted as head coach-in-waiting, Langer was named as Darren Lehmann\u2019s replacement on Thursday, his predecessor having resigned in the wake of the Cape Town scandal even though he was cleared of wrongdoing.<\/p>\n
A gritty opening batsman who played in some of Australia\u2019s greatest-ever teams, Langer takes over a depleted side, with disgraced former captain Steve Smith and his deputy David Warner serving year-long bans in the fall-out from South Africa.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, I think one of the things that\u2019s really important is we keep looking to earn respect,\u201d the 47-year-old told reporters in Melbourne on Thursday.
\n\u201cTo me, respect\u2019s worth more than all the gold in the world. It\u2019s not just about how we play our cricket, it\u2019s about being good citizens and good Australians,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Perth-born Langer scored more than 7,500 runs in 105 Tests, including 23 centuries, before retiring with a slew of greats at the end of the 2006\/07 Ashes series.<\/p>\n
He has had success coaching Western Australia state since 2012, guiding Perth Scorchers to three domestic Twenty20 titles in the \u2018Big Bash\u2019, making them the most successful franchise in the tournament\u2019s short history.<\/p>\n
Appointed coach of Australia\u2019s Test, one-day and T20 teams for the next four years, Langer\u2019s first on-field assignment will be on tour against England next month for an ODI series.<\/p>\n
One of his jobs will be to participate in a players\u2019 review aimed at improving team culture and conduct, which former players and media pundits have long criticised as boorish and out of step with public expectations.<\/p>\n
Like his predecessor Lehmann, Langer carved out a career in some of Australia\u2019s most successful and uncompromising teams in the 1990s and early 2000s, led by captains that championed \u201chard, aggressive cricket\u201d and never apologised for the use of targeted sledging to throw opponents off their games.<\/p>\n
He felt Australia\u2019s players would need to \u201cmodify their behaviour a bit\u201d, but said the nation expected their teams to play tough as well as fair.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe public will be disappointed if we don\u2019t play good, hard, competitive cricket,\u201d said Langer, dressed in a dark suit and tie alongside Cricket Australia boss James Sutherland.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow people view us, that\u2019s really none of our business. We know in this world everyone\u2019s got an opinion. If we go about our behaviours on and off the field really well, those outcomes will look after themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Along with Smith and Warner, young opening batsman Cameron Bancroft was banned for nine months, having been caught on camera with a piece of sandpaper while out in the field during the third Test in Cape Town.<\/p>\n
Langer said he was stunned that \u201ccricket tragics\u201d Smith and Bancroft had been involved in the ball-tampering, but they and Warner would all be welcomed back into the side if they met \u201cstandards\u201d once their bans were served.<\/p>\n
A father to four daughters, he also described himself as a \u201chippy\u201d, as well as a mentor, to the amusement of reporters. He is also a man who meditates and spends at least one month a year growing a beard and walking around in bare feet during his down-time.<\/p>\n
Rebuilding trust in Australia\u2019s dressing room, as well as the cricket world, will be crucial, Langer said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Newly appointed Australia coach Justin Langer will charge his players with winning back the \u201crespect\u201d of the cricket world after a ball-tampering scandal left the team\u2019s reputation in ruins. Long touted as head coach-in-waiting, Langer was named as Darren Lehmann\u2019s replacement on Thursday, his predecessor having resigned in the wake of the Cape Town scandal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30001,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30000"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30002,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30000\/revisions\/30002"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}