Tim Paine pledges Australia will continue to work with Justin Langer

Australia Test skipper Tim Paine has backed their head coach Justin Langer for delivering the goods in the near future. On Wednesday, August 18, the who’s who of Cricket Australia held a “robust” emergency zoom meeting to discuss Langer’s role in the national team.

Earl Eddings, the CA chairman, and Nick Hockley, the CEO, had a zoom call with Paine, limited-overs skipper Aaron Finch and vice-captain Pat Cummins. The meeting took place on the same day when Hockley showed his support for Langer in a public statement.

Paine said that he had a personal chat with Langer, who was in hotel quarantine in Adelaide. The veteran said that Australia have set their goals for the upcoming T20 World Cup in the UAE and the Ashes later this year at home.

There’s no doubt the week has been difficult for him, says Tim Paine

“There’s no hiding from it, it’s been a tough week, certainly for Justin Langer than it has been for anyone else. We’ve had some really robust conversations among our leaders in the last few days and we’re really looking forward to the next six months with JL,” Paine was quoted as saying on his SEN radio show.

“It was important that myself, Aaron Finch, Pat Cummins, and the leaders of Australian cricket got around him, discussed things that needed to be discussed, and then got around him and supported him and looked to move forward.

“There’s no doubt the week has been difficult for him, but as I said the last few days, we’ve been able to galvanise around him, to have some really robust discussions on where we want to take this cricket team, what we expect of him and what he expects of us.”

Paine stated that the issues surrounding Langer wasn’t something new and blame for Australia’s indifferent show of late shouldn’t be put on the head coach alone. Back in January, the Aussies lost the home Test against India 1-2.

Thereafter, they went down to the West Indies 1-4 in the T20I series and suffered the same fate at the hands of Bangladesh. It’s been three years since Langer took charge of the Aussies following the ball-tampering scandal in Cape Town.