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Former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting bemoaned Justin Langer's resignation from team's head coach and termed it 'a really sad day' for country's cricket and also took a swipe at the Cricket Australia (CA) by saying 'the way CA handled the situation was embarrassing.
“It is a really sad day as far as Australian cricket is concerned and if you look back it has been a really poor six months on the whole in the way that Cricket Australia has handled some of the better people in the Australian cricket - Justin Langer and Tim Paine - and I think it's been almost embarrassing the way they have handled those two cases,” Ponting told ABC Radio.
"He mustn't have had the full backing of the board. Me knowing Justin the way that I do, he was very keen to continue in the role, as he should have been after what's been the best coaching period of his international career having just won the T20 World Cup and then the 4-0 result in the Ashes.
“It seems like a very strange time for a coach to be departing. Reading the tea leaves it sounds like a few - and as he [Langer] says to me a small group in the playing group and a couple of other staff around the team - haven't entirely loved the way he has gone about it,” Ponting further added.
"That's been enough to force a man who has put his life and heart and soul into Australian cricket and done a sensational job at turning around the culture and the way the Australian team has been looked at in the last few years to push him out of the job," he added.
Only John Buchanan has a better winning record among Australia coaches than Langer since 1985 when they began employing full-time head coaches. Langer oversaw an Ashes drubbing of England in his final Test series, which followed immediately from T20 World Cup glory in the United Arab Emirates.
When Ponting was asked whether Test captain Pat Cummins was part of the dissenters and if he found that disappointing, to which he replied: "Justin is a great mate of mine and I know how passionate he is about the Australian coaching job. "He wanted to continue on and be the best coach and have the best cricket team in the world.
"I think Pat also has been put in a difficult situation as captain, if it's not just him and it is other players coming to him and letting him know that maybe they think Justin is not the right man then that puts Pat in a difficult position as well.
"If he had got on the front foot and endorsed Justin they would not have been in a position to move him on. “I am close to Justin, we are like brothers but I have not got too heavily involved in this, as much as giving him a pat on the back and put an arm around him here and there, there was no way I could change the way this was heading,” he further added.
Hayden not happy with Pat Cummins
Matthew Hayden, meanwhile, criticised Pat for declining in recent weeks to public endorse Langer to get a new contract.
Cummins had insisted that reviewing Langer's suitability for the role was fair in a "high-performance environment" and while he was part of CA's process, it was ultimately not up to him to make the decision on the coach's future.
"It was absolutely clear that no one backed him," a clearly emotional Hayden told ABC.
"If you listen to the Australian captain the other day not mention once any kind of commendation or support for him, I don't think (Justin) would be going very well at all. That would be extremely hurtful.
"The whole thing just reeks of being orchestrated, basically from the moment all of this garbage started coming out (about Langer's coaching style) in winter last year. You could see the writing was on the wall," he further added.
