As Michael Vaughan watched England crumble in the Ashes, the former Test captain struggled to fathom Cricket Australia’s contract wrestle with coach Justin Langer.
Langer will reach the end of his four-year contract in June, having taken on the role in 2018 in the wake of the Cape Town ball-tampering saga.
The former opening batsman has since overseen an overhaul of Australia’s cricket culture, led his men to a T20 World Cup title and twice retained the Ashes.
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The current Ashes series was wrapped up inside just 12 days, when a white-hot Scott Boland destroyed England with 6-7 as Australia beat the tourists by an innings at the MCG.
But despite that success there appears to be a stand-off between CA and Langer, following reports of mood swings and micromanagement that frustrated some players.
Vaughan expressed his surprise at the stalling contract talks during the first day of the Sydney Test.
“I would jump at the chance (to extend Langer),” Vaughan said on the Fox Cricket broadcast.
“Be careful what you wish for – that’s all I’ll say.
“The grass is not always greener and Justin Langer, from what I see – he’s doing a fantastic job.
“If I was Cricket Australia I’d sign him up for at least a couple more years.”
Vaughan pointed to the 2019 Ashes, in which Australia retained the urn in a drawn series in the United Kingdom, as a reason why Langer should receive a new deal.
Australia will be quietly confident of winning their first Ashes series on English soil since 2001 when they travel to the UK next year.
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“He’d take all that information to make sure that in 2023 (Australia) go on to win the Ashes convincingly in English conditions, because they’ve got the squad and the mentality around the group with Justin’s kind of leadership to go on and do so,” Vaughan said.
“But if you don’t want him, yeah, we’ll have him.”
Langer was coy when asked about his contract situation after the Melbourne Test.
“We’ll worry about that later,” Langer said on Fox Cricket.
“But we’ll be enjoying this at the moment because I’m still pinching myself.”
New Test captain Pat Cummins also refused to be drawn into the drama.
“I think we’ll savour this victory today and continue for the Ashes, and I don’t think today is the day to speculate on that,” Cummins said on Fox Cricket.
So demanding is the modern-day cricket schedule that Langer could shift to a ‘split’ role, tasked with only leading the Test set-up or coaching the white-ball squads.
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