Humility and mateship the main values, says Justin Langer
Some have suggested that Australia adopt the nice-guys approach of New Zealand, while many feel going the England way in one-day international cricket will help Australia rise from their current No.5 position on the MRF Tyres ICC Men’s ODI Team Rankings.
“I'm hearing about mimicking England's style and mimicking New Zealand's style – we've got to mimic Australian style, because we should be so proud of what we've achieved in our past,” argued Justin Langer, the new Australia coach, as the team prepare for the limited-overs international tour of England in June.
“We've got our way of doing things and we shouldn't shy away from that. Can we get better in one-day cricket? Absolutely, our ranking shows that. We haven't been great in one day cricket, we've just got to play it better. For me it's really clear, you need really good athletes, they've got to be able to field well, got to be really fit, because they've got to run hard between the wickets, the little basics. We've got to take responsibility with the bat, we've probably got away from that the last year or so, our ranking suggests that. Ultimately, it's about what we are doing as a team, not the individuals.”
The Australian ODI and Twenty20 International sides won’t have Steve Smith and David Warner, who are serving bans along with Cameron Bancroft, and that makes it tougher for the team to get back to the top of the rankings and get their defence of the ICC Cricket World Cup on track.
As for Langer, he just wants to get back to the game. “I'm looking forward to getting on the plane and starting to think about cricket, to be honest. There's been a lot of information. I got here (National Cricket Centre in Brisbane) about 7am on Tuesday, had my first selection meeting, got home about 8pm, sat on my chair and I texted Christina Matthews, my old boss (at Western Australia), and said ‘am I too late to get my old job back?’,” joked Langer.
“It seemed like a good job, I had my feet under the table, I knew the lay of the land, it was pretty cruisey. But this has certainly been a big eye opener, which I'm really looking forward to.”
Back to serious matters, and Langer knows that the expectations will be high, especially after a low period for Australian cricket, which led to Darren Lehmann stepping aside from the head coach’s post and Langer getting the job.
“We've got to aim to be No. 1 in professionalism in the world, we've got to be No. 1 in honesty, that's a really important value, and we've got to be No. 1 in humility,” stressed Langer. “It doesn't matter how much money you've got, or how many games or how many runs, if you're not a good bloke, that's what people remember. So humility is important. Our mateship is really important, sticking together. So they'd be the main values at this stage.
“When I had the first selection meeting the other day and I saw you take those three names out, it's a bit of a shock to the system, and it's not even a cliché. But it's a very good opportunity for some blokes. It'll be great for us in the future to make sure our depth is strong.”
Langer is also sure that following the ball-tampering episode in South Africa, the crowd and media in England are going to make life difficult for the Australians.
“Expecting to cop plenty from the crowds and the media, but that's England,” said Langer. “Even if you're winning all the time and you're squeaky clean, you still cop it, so I'd say we'll cop it just as much as usual, but that's OK.
“It won't take one tour or one year. It will take one behaviour, one thousand behaviours, one million behaviours to win back respect. If we behave well on and off the field, we will earn some trust and respect back. The Australian public loves the Australian cricket team but there is more to it than just being good cricketers.”
The tour of England starts with warm-up games against Sussex and Middlesex before the first ODI on 13 June at The Oval, and after five ODIs, the series concludes with the one-off T20I at Edgbaston on 27 June.