Langer hopeful of getting former greats to help team in future

Melbourne, June 18 (IANS): Despite Cricket Australia’s cost-cutting response to the Covid-19 pandemic, head coach Justin Langer has said he will find a way to involve the greats of the game to help out the teams as mentors.

According to the official CA statement on Wednesday, 40 more jobs would be lost, taking the total tally to 200 since the crisis began in March. The Australian cricket board has also slashed 40 million dollars from its annual budget.

As a result, Langer said goodbye to long-time batting coach Graeme Hick from his coaching staff.

Former Test captains Ricky Ponting and Steve Waugh were part of Langer’s staff for the World Cup and Ashes campaigns respectively last year, while Mike Hussey has also worked with the T20 side.

“How we make that happen in the future, we’ll do our best to make it happen because it’s very, very important,” Langer was quoted by cricket.com.au.

“The more good people that we can have around the team, the better. We’re just going to have to be more creative and we’re going to have to work through solutions for how we can make that happen.”

Langer added that while a selector on duty for overseas tours could be done away with, they can use technology to still get them helping the team.

“For the players, it’s nice to see some other selectors around at times.

“But look the way that these technology platforms (have helped) … I’m sure there’s going to be scope for using a lot more of this technology to make these decisions, to talk to the captain, to talk to the senior players and that’ll be a part of it.

“I think there’ll be more in-depth conversations to work through actually how this is going to work. So, we’re aware of it now and now it’s (time) to do our job, to get creative and work out how it’s best going to work for the organisation and for the team.”

“No one could ever criticise me for not wanting to roll my sleeves up and do some work,” he said.

“We will certainly have less staff on the road with us, but the guys will still get great support. Whether it’s remotely; as we’ve seen over this Covid period, there’s a lot of support that can be given and serviced remotely.

“We’ll all survive. We’ll be a bit leaner and sharper, that’s for sure, but we’ll survive, we’ll adapt, and the players will still get the service required,” he added.

CA on Wednesday detailed a program of operational changes that, according to them, will deliver significant savings in response to the rapidly evolving Covid-19 situation while ensuring the long-term sustainability and growth of the game.