Australian cricket legend Mark Taylor believes the uncertainty surrounding the future of coach Justin Langer is a sign of the “changing landscape” in which players have more power.
Langer’s position as the Australian head coach has been under question in recent weeks.
It follows reports of a blow-up between him and a Cricket Australia staffer during the recent tour of Bangladesh, while there was rumoured friction among players after Langer reportedly negotiated his own deal with Amazon for the Test documentary.
According to Taylor, players having “more power” than ever before is now resulting in the Australian squad’s internal issues being played out in the media.
“The disappointing thing out of all of this is it’s the sign of the changing landscape,” Taylor told Nine’s Sports Sunday.
“Things like this we are talking about far more openly. This sort of stuff used to be handled in the change rooms, or in a bar afterwards over a couple of beers.
“I remember when I took over the captaincy from Allan Border and Bob Simpson was the coach, he and I had a number of one-on-one chats.
“We sat down and talked about how we wanted to be captained and coached. It wasn’t through the media and that’s the disappointing thing now.
“One of the problems we as ex-players are having trouble with is because it’s not done the way we used to do it. Players have more power these days, I’ve said that before.
“Therefore their relationships in and around media have more power as well. All of this stuff is filtering out into the public space where 20 or 30 years ago it didn’t.”
Taylor believes the control Cricket Australia once had on its players is now a thing of the past.
“It’s a sign of the times for me that there’s been a shift of the old traditional way where CA controlled the players, and therefore the players did what they were told to do,” he added.
“Now with T20 cricket – IPL, BBL and BPL, all these sorts of things, players have more power.
“They don’t necessarily have to align themselves with Australian cricket even though they want to be Australian cricketers. There are other options now.
“It makes it difficult for Cricket Australia to absolutely control the players. This is the sign of the 21st-century cricketer.
“With that should be a change in responsibility and accountability. Everyone still looks at CA to say, ‘you’ve got to sort this.’
“It’s not easy to sort because the players are more sole traders these days than they were in my time.”
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