The Australian head coach Justin Langer expressed that the process to ease Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft back into the Australian team has begun. The appeal to reduce the 12-month bans for Smith and Warner was recently upheld by Cricket Australia, which means that the duo will not be available for selection until April 2019.
Steve Smith and David Warner, who have had a meeting with Langer on separate occasions, attended a practice session with the national team ahead of the third T20 international against India. They faced fast bowlers Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins in the nets.
“There’s going to be a process for the boys to come back and it is really important we start working on that process from now. We can’t get to the point and just say ‘right they’re back’. It’s not fair on them, it’s not fair on the team, it’s not fair on everyone,” Langer told Cricbuzz.
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“I had breakfast with him (Smith) on Monday morning and I caught up with Davey for a couple of hours that afternoon as well. I didn’t deliberately catch up with them separately. I caught up with Davey in Brisbane before we went to the UAE because I wanted to see him face to face. It’s one thing exchanging text messages and emails, you have to talk face to face. We had a great catch-up.”
{{/usCountry}}“I had breakfast with him (Smith) on Monday morning and I caught up with Davey for a couple of hours that afternoon as well. I didn’t deliberately catch up with them separately. I caught up with Davey in Brisbane before we went to the UAE because I wanted to see him face to face. It’s one thing exchanging text messages and emails, you have to talk face to face. We had a great catch-up.”
{{/usCountry}}Langer expressed that the Western Australian team went through a similar situation around the year 2012. Langer took up the Western Australia coaching job and made an erratic team into a successful one.
“I think we have all got to get together. When I first took over Western Australian cricket it was like a dysfunctional family and what I meant by that then the media hated the team, the team hated them back, club cricket hated the WACA, the WACA hated them back, the past players hated the WACA, the WACA hated them back,” said Langer.
“There was a lot of angst. I’m probably feeling that a bit now in Australian cricket, there’s a lot of angst and for someone who is passionate about Australian cricket and now the coach I like harmony. I like family. A lot’s gone on, let’s not shy away from that, the closer we can bring the family back together, you would say a dysfunctional family, I know that’s a headline for you, but that’s what I felt back then.”