Australia to perform well despite cost-cutting measures: Langer
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|| Desk Report ||
Australia Head Coach Justin Langer on Thursday said that his team will do well despite the board’s cost-cutting measures to shore up the finance hard hit by the drawn-out coronavirus pandemic.
Cricket Australia (CA) removed their long-time batting coach Graeme Hick from Langer’s coaching staff on Wednesday. Hick was one of 40 redundancies across the organisations as part of restructuring measures to cut costs and shore up the finances hit by the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown.
“No one could ever criticise me for not wanting to roll my sleeves up and do some work. We will certainly have less staff on the road with us, but the guys will still get great support,” Justin Langer said.
“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,” Langer told the reporters.
The Aussie head coach said that it was tough for him to break the news to Hick who has been with the Australia team since 2016.
“Having to tell Graeme Hick yesterday morning was like facing (Curtly) Ambrose and (Courtney) Walsh without a helmet and a box on,” Langer said.
“He’s a ripping human being, there’s no doubt about that. You won’t meet a person of greater integrity than Graeme Hick. His worth ethic is unbelievable, his knowledge of the game is unbelievable, so it was a really tough call,” he added.
Langer hinted that they might involve high-profile mentors like Ricky Ponting and Steve Waugh for the major series for the time being.
“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,” he concluded.
