“The knives are out” for Langer after alleged exchange with Cricket Australia staffer

Australian men’s coach Justin Langer and team manager Gavin Dovey were reportedly involved in a heated exchange with a Cricket Australia staffer during the recent T20 series against Bangladesh.

According to The Age, Dovey and Langer were both unhappy with a CA digital staffer over a video posted to cricket.com.au, showing Bangladesh celebrating after taking a 3-0 lead in the recently completed five-match series.

The Age claims at least a dozen people at the team hotel saw the verbal stoush which “left some players taken aback and with a sense of unease about what had transpired”.

Speaking on SEN WA’s Gilly and Goss, Australian cricket great Adam Gilchrist questioned the accuracy of the report.

“The knives are out,” Gilchrist declared.

“The pursuit of Justin Langer as (Australia’s) cricket coach is on in earnest by sections of the media.

“An article written in the last few days saying that Justin had a blow up with the media department at Cricket Australia over there in Bangladesh – he didn’t.

“If you read the article, it looks like Justin Langer has ripped in and had a very heated exchange with the Cricket Australia employed media representative, who is on the tour and is trying to prove a balanced perspective on media reports for the rest of the world to digest.

“The team manager, Gavin Dovey, did have I think a heated exchange with the particular chap, who responded in kind, and it got a little bit heated.”

Gilchrist is concerned by leaks coming out of the Australian team after reports of player of discontent and criticism of Langer’s management style emerged earlier this year.

“There’s obviously a leak somewhere – and that’s the other concerning thing for Justin – it’s continuing to build now after the end of the season about player unrest and Justin’s behaviour,” Gilchrist said.

“That’s all been addressed.

“I know Tim Paine has gone around and spoken to every single player. Tim Paine took it upon himself to speak to every player to find out if there’s an issue, and wholeheartedly said there’s not.

“It annoys me that there’s now this momentum going towards Justin – and watch it go – they’re just going to continually bring things up.

“Journalists say it’s not personal, but human nature says they’ve got it on the record now in the public space these journalists, so they feel an obligation to push through until they get the end desired result to justify what they’re saying.

“But human nature from Justin’s point of view is he's going to get a little bit disappointed by that, so it’s just going to continue on.

“This is just going to add intrigue to the summer. It’s going to be very, very interesting to see what happens.”