The Australian dressing room turmoil, which had forced Cricket Australia (CA) to hold a fire-fighting session a little over two months back, seems to be a thing of the past with the Aaron Finch-led side having emerged stronger from the ordeal to deservedly win the ICC T20 World Cup, defeating Trans-Tasman rivals New Zealand in the final.
Australian coach Justin Langer was caught in the middle of a storm when he was under hotel quarantine in Adelaide with the Australian team. Tensions had flared up between the 46-year-old Langer and the cricketers, and 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 had come 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 CA staffer in Dhaka.
However, Finch said during the post-match press conference on Sunday that the vibe around the group had been unbelievable, indicating the patch-up between the players and coach Langer was complete.
Asked about the events that unfolded two months back, Finch said, "Yeah, he's been great. The vibe around the group has been unbelievable. Just how well everyone is getting along, like I said earlier, there's a lot of time spent in each other's rooms and the team room and just chilling out at lunches, dinners and breakfast and everything has had all together. Yeah, I think that just adds to the environment.
"So yeah, JL (Justin Langer) has played a part in that as well, and yeah, that's a great reward for him as well as the players," added Finch.
Asked pointedly how he had been able to check the "tension and awkwardness" in the camp before the T20 World Cup campaign, the Aussie limited-overs skipper said that honest conversations helped allay misconceptions.
"There's been no tension or awkwardness whatsoever. It's about having honest conversations and being really up front and being really honest. The only time there's awkwardness is when things are happening behind the scenes and you're trying to work things out or you're trying to pull things under or pull the wool over someone's eyes. No, there's none of that whatsoever. It's been a great campaign."
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