Cricket Australia responds after Justin Langer resigns as men's head coach

Cricket Australia (CA) has defended its decision to only offer Justin Langer a short-term contract extension as men's head coach, saying he did not meet the team's «needs going forward».

Langer announced his resignation on Saturday morning, having rejected CA's offer of the short-term extension to his current contract, which was due to expire later this year.

CA has been strongly criticised by former Australian Test players such as Ricky Ponting, Mathew Hayden and Mitchell Johnson who highlighted the success the national team had enjoyed under Langer since he became head coach in 2018 in the wake of the ball-tampering scandal.

Australia retained the Ashes in 2019 and defeated England 4-0 in the recent series on home soil, while it also won the T20 World Cup late last year.

CA chief executive Nick Hockley said his organisation made the offer of a short-term extension as part of what it described as a «period of transition».

Matthew Hayden leaps to the defence of Justin Langer, saying his former opening partner was let down by the players and Cricket Australia during his tenure as head coach.

Hockley said CA was «disappointed» by Langer's decision, as it wanted him to coach Australia in its defence of its T20 World Cup championship in October and November.

But he said Langer was not in CA's long-term plans.

«We were pretty clear with Justin that it was for a period of transition,» Hockley told a media conference.

«We want to be clear and respectful to him. Justin has done a fantastic job.

»When we sat down and looked at the needs of the team going forward, we thought that the team has evolved.

«The team's needs or requirements of the head coach had evolved, so we were clear that we were looking at a short-term extension.»

Hockley