Justin Langer DENIES ‘utter rubbish’ claims that he is at war with Pat Cummins

Justin Langer has clarified that he is not aggrieved with Pat Cummins amid suggestions he is at ‘war’ with the Australia cricket captain, insisting he has ‘so much respect’ for the fast bowler. 

Langer claimed this week that he was betrayed by ‘cowards’ who leaked information against him during his final months in charge of the Australian team before his surprise sacking.

He lifted the lid on his relationship with captain Cummins and opened up on his frustrations with feedback coming from the media rather than his players.

But he has moved to deny claims of a rift between himself and his former star man. 

‘Ironically, I spoke to Patty on Monday, we had a long talk about how the team was going, how he’s going, how his family’s going. And some of this rubbish is complete and utter rubbish,’ he told Channel 7 News Perth.

‘I’ve got so much respect for Patty Cummins, I think he’s a brilliant player, I think he’s an outstanding human being. So any thought there’s war between Patty and I could not be further from the truth.

‘There was sort of talk about relating the word coward with Pat Cummins. If you listen to the podcast, I was actually praising Pat, I was praising Finchy, I was praising Tim Paine for giving me the feedback. I was actually complimenting them, not criticising them as it’s come out. It turns into a bushfire, what do you do?’

In his interview with the Backchat podcast, Langer maintained that he had the support of most of the players at the time of his axing. 

Langer was unimpressed by Cummins’ communication skills during his time as head coach

However, he says that he has ‘so much respect’ for the fast bowler and denied rumours of a rift 

‘Everyone was being nice to my face but I was reading about this stuff,’ Langer said.

‘A lot of journalists use the word ‘source’. I would say, change that word to ‘coward’.

‘Because what do you mean a source says?

‘They’ve either got an axe to grind with someone and they won’t come and say it to your face, or they’re just leaking stuff for their own agenda.’

Referring to his relationship with Cummins, Langer initially said: ‘I spoke to Pat Cummins. He said to me about five times, ‘This might be brutally honest’. I said, “Pat, there is nothing brutal about your feedback. What is brutal is I’m hearing it behind my back through the media or through sources. No one’s telling me. Tell me”.’