Under Langer We Can Believe Again...

Adam Collins assesses the impression that Justin Langer has made, both on and off the field, at the end of his first year as Australia head coach.

Before the start of this World Cup, I was asked by a former on-field adversary of Justin Langer’s how he was going as coach of the Australian team.

Given it feels like he took over only a couple of moments ago, that surely linked to the circumstances of his arrival in the gig, it isn’t a question that I had thought much about. New coaches need to settle, after all.

But given it was a year this week since Australia arrived in England for their first post-Sandpaper assignment, heralding the start of the Langer Era if you like, it is a timely moment to cast an eye back at what has been. Specifically, to take a reading on whether Langer has the tools to lead this side back to something resembling the one he thrived in as a player.

To understand Langer is to understand his role in that famous dressing room. Perhaps no vignette captures it better than when in 2006 the ageing side thrashed South Africa – their main competition for supremacy at the time – in a Test series away from home. It was a victory that many of those involved have reflected on subsequently as one of their most proud. When they turned back the clock, albeit a wee bit, to flex their weary muscles.

At that stage, Langer, who during the series wanted to walk out to bat while badly concussed if his side needed it (thankfully, they didn’t) was the long-term custodian of the team song. In turn, it was his job to decide when it would be sung in the rooms following the Cape Town win that put the cherry on the cake. He kept them waiting. As the story goes, he had a better idea: sending the team up to the top of a vacated Table Mountain at 11pm.