Ricky Ponting has placed his confidence around existing Australia Head Coach Justin Langer, who has been under assault for a mixture of his style of leadership and the team’s recent form, So Ricky Ponting Said Justin Langer should get Things Done Better.
Australia has now dropped all 5 of their prior bilateral T20 matches, having recently fallen 1-4 to the West Indies and Bangladesh in 2 away T20I series. With the T20 World Cup approaching, a slew of doubts has been voiced about the team, particularly something over Langer’s job as a coach.
In a recent interview, Ponting said – “As I made really clear to Justin when you’re in that position in Australian sport, whether you’re a high-profile coach or a captain of a national team, if you’re not getting the results, then you’ve got to expect the negativity,”
He has also added – “If you wind the clock back not even 12 months ago, the Australian team were the number one ranked Test team and T20 team in the world, we know all the talent is there”.
I know there’s been a lot of negativity the last few weeks: Ponting
“The last tour to Bangladesh and the West Indies was pretty tough to judge the coaches on because I think there was eight or nine out of the starting XI for T20 and one-day cricket wasn’t there.”
According to reports, even the Australian team was previously unsatisfied with Langer’s coaching personality and attitude.
“It sounds like the captain and some of the senior players have had some pretty direct conversation with Justin about the things they think he needs to get better at,” Ponting said.
“But he is also the sort of bloke who seeks that sort of advice anyway. He wants to find out how he can get better and what he can do better. I know there’s been a lot of negativity the last few weeks, I really felt for Justin, I rang Justin a few times,” Ponting said.
“They just got back from that tough tour of the West Indies and then Bangladesh, and he was locked up in his hotel room in Adelaide, and he was sort of copping it left, right, and center. Me and a lot of his close friends have reached out to him.”
Former Australian skipper Mark Waugh described the way in which the “spotlight has been shifted from players’ accomplishments to him” as “unfair.”
Similarly, Langer is upbeat and hopeful about being a “better coach.” “The situation at the moment is very tough but I am confident that I will become a better coach from it. We all got a lot off our chests. I think we are all in a better place now. When you win, everyone is happy and gets on with things but when you are losing, that is when the finger-pointing starts, and people look for excuses,” he recently said in an Interaction.
