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Players' unhappiness in end-of-season review put Australia coach Justin Langer in a spot

Mayank Kumar

An end-of-season review of the Australia team has found players unhappy over the methods and goal-setting processes of the coach Justin Langer, Sydney Morning Herald reported. 

The review was conducted by a leadership consultant Tim Ford, who interviewed as many as 40 members of the Australian cricket team including the support staffs at the end of the last season that did not go well for Australia. Players were asked about their welfare and state of mind after a tough summer and whether the team culture and values needed upgrades since the last review process conducted in 2019.

The review will be handed out to ‘leaders’ of the team such as Tim Paine, Pat Cummins and Aaron Finch which will enable players to get more ownership of the side and their goals instead of the approach adopted by Langer after his appointment in 2018, the Herald added in its report.

This was Ford’s second review of the team with the first review conducted before the ICC World Cup 2019 and The Ashes after Cricket Australia had hired him to facilitate the reintegration of Steve Smith, David Warner to the Australia side.

The Executive General Manager of the Australian national teams, Ben Oliver,  said that the end of the season review is a ‘thought-provoking’ and ‘energising’ process said that establishes Cricket Australia’s commitment towards improving the state of players and the team both on and off the field.

“This is effectively identical to the process undertaken before the last World Cup and the 2019 Ashes where the team performed strongly,” Oliver was quoted as saying by the Herald. “It’s part of our ongoing commitment to on- and off-field improvement and we expect it will have a similar benefit in the team’s preparation for the upcoming T20 World Cup and home Ashes. Tim is again assisting us as he has in the past with gathering feedback and insights from players and staff. It’s always a thought-provoking and energising process which we get great value from.”

Australia lost the Test and T20I series against India after convincingly winning the ODI series late last year. The Test series loss to India ignited the debate around the leadership group of the team but Tim Paine went unscathed after selectors decided to back him.

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