No fear for Australia’s new mentor
THIS much is certain about Justin Langer’s four-year reign as Australian cricket coach — it won’t be boring.
Langer’s appointment prompted me to re-read his autobiographical work Seeing The Sunrise, which is filled with life lessons that have moulded his spiritual and tangential world view.
Langer once had a crippling fear of heights but he conquered it when his grandfather took him to the top floor of a construction site and said: “Justin, don’t look down, look up.’’
Langer had been a quivering, fearful wreck as he climbed to the top floor but looking up liberated his fears and set him free. Langer claims the experience was not simply phobia-conquering but life-changing, as looking up not down became a metaphor for the way he wanted to live his life.
Langer is not afraid to share stories about himself that make him look vulnerable, such as the night he was drinking with Tom Moody in Brisbane and Moody asked: “Have you ever told your dad you loved him?’’
Langer, to his mild embarrassment, admitted he hadn’t but soon after went out and rang his father in Perth on a pay phone and did so.
Rarely have a coach and player been more suited to each other than Langer and John Buchanan who, like Langer, loved peeping beyond traditional boundaries. When Buchanan became coach of Australia, Langer was a battling fringe player averaging 33 after 24 Tests. Seven years later he retired with an average of 45 after a 105-Test career with the coach having much to do with the rise of Langer’s career and his self-esteem.
It will be interesting to see whether Langer connects with any Australian players in the way Buchanan connected with him.
If anyone could get the best out of the Marsh boys, Langer, who has known them since they were babies, would appear to be the man.
Langer is a great admirer of Wayne Bennett — who he met through Buchanan — particularly Bennett’s views on perseverance. A favourite Bennett quote of Langer’s is: “So often we are so close to our objectives only to walk away. Burke and Wills died of thirst not knowing there was water over the next hill.’’
Certainly there will be plenty of thirsty times for Langer ahead — and hopefully, a decent drink at the end of them.