Days after Justin Langer took a dislike for a celebratory video of the Bangladesh side that was posted on Cricket Australia’s social media after they won a T20I series, a former media manager narrates how the coach’s erratic behaviour is having an adverse effect on the players.

Langer, who was at the helm when Australia went down 4-1 to Bangladesh in a recent T20I series, was recently involved in a heated exchange with an unnamed member of CA’s digital team after they posted a jubilant video of the Bangla Tigers following their series win on social media and on their website cricket.com.au.

A former media manager for CA, Malcolm Conn has now opened about his experience with working with Langer in the past in an article for the Sydney Morning Herald. In it, Conn narrates how he struggled to work with the coach during a part of the 2019 World Cup, the Ashes and the T20I series Down Under against Sri Lanka.

“You were never certain whether your question was going to be met with an answer or an explosion. Even a simple post on the player and support staff group chat letting them know of a particular issue that had been brought up in the media could elicit a rebuke,” writes Conn.

“Some players didn’t like walking past Langer’s seat on the team bus lest they prompted a negative response. If things weren’t going well, the odd player would ask,“How’s the grumpy coach?””

He further elaborates on Langer’s obsession with things that “didn’t seem to matter”.

“Most baffling was Langer’s sudden obsession with things that, to me, didn’t seem to matter. Two days out from the beginning of the 2019/20 international summer, heading into a long-forgotten Twenty20 series against a modest Sri Lankan side, Langer decided that, despite an $800 million television deal with Fox, players would no longer be allowed to be miked up on the field.

“Apparently, Glenn Maxwell had once dropped a simple catch because, Langer thought, he had been distracted by a conversation with TV commentators…. What was all the fuss about? And why so close to the start of the season?”

Conn mentions another incident an hour before the start of the series against the Asian side that tipped Langer off.

“What’s that? We’ve got to play these blokes in an hour!”

“The video screen next to the Adelaide Oval scoreboard was showing highlights of Sri Lankan captain Lasith Malinga, bowling batsmen with his trademark slinging, swinging yorkers. I had another quick look around the ground but no one was paying attention to the screen. They were too busy watching cricket balls flying around during warm-ups. I went off to look for whoever was in charge of screen output, but could not help wondering whether there might be more important things to worry about going into the first match of the summer.”

Though Conn writes about how he admired Langer as a player and his role in getting Australia cricket back on track after the Sandpapergate, he also mentions how the “players are being worn down by the volatile, high-stress environment he inhabits as coach, and his folksy, clichéd motivational homilies.”

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