Fallout Between Coach Justin Langer And Team Was Exaggerated: Joe Burns

Langer came under intense scrutiny after returning from Australia’s T20I series loss to West Indies and Bangladesh.

Fallout between coach Langer and Australian cricketers was magnified: Joe Burns

Photo: IANS

Australian cricketer Joe Burns has said that the 'fallout' between coach Justin Langer and the players had been "magnified", adding that there are always "little problems" in teams which can be "talked about and fixed".

Langer was caught in the middle of a storm when he was under hotel quarantine in Adelaide with the Australian team. Tensions flared up between the 46-year-old Langer and the cricketers, and Cricket Australia (CA) had to do a lot of fire-fighting, holding an emergency Zoom meeting in August where CA chairman Earl Eddings, CEO Hockley, Test skipper Tim Paine, limited-overs captain Aaron Finch, and Pat Cummins were present.

Langer came under intense scrutiny after returning from Australia's 4-1 T20I series losses to West Indies and Bangladesh. There were reports of discontent between him and the players apart from alleged heated argument with a Cricket Australia staffer in Dhaka.

But opener Burns backed Langer amid the backdrop of the criticism he faced in the build-up to the ICC T20 World Cup and Ashes series, beginning December 8 at the Gabba.

"In that fishbowl, everything is magnified," Burns said on SEN WA on Monday. "There'd be little problems like there is in every team, you'd talk about it and it gets fixed but in the Aussie team, it always blows up and appears to be 10 times worse in the public than in reality.

"I love Langer and him as coach, I love the passion he's brought to the team. You make no apologies about wanting to win games for your country, if that comes across in different way then you can't control," said the 32-year-old Burns, who has played 23 Tests, scoring more than 1400 runs.

"Everyone in the setup knows what the ultimate goal is and what we're trying to achieve, if you stand by those (values) you can't go wrong and I believe the team has done that. It's the by-product when you invite the cameras in and do a documentary, it's great to get that access but people run with it and make their own conclusions around different issues from there," added Burns.

Australian will take on Pakistan in the ICC T20 World Cup semifinals in Dubai on November 11, with the winner playing either New Zealand or England in the final.

(With IANS Inputs)