Article
WATCH: Justin Langer and his Cheating Incidents
By CricShots - May 4, 2018 4:30 pm
Views 86

Former Australian opener, Justin Langer has now been vowed as the head coach of the Australian cricket team after the resignation of Darren Lehman in all three formats of the game on Thursday.

Langer
Justin Langer

Langer’s coaching tenure will last for 4 years which includes big tournaments like two Ashes series, a Cricket World Cup, and a World Twenty20 tournament. The 47-year-old will be taking the job when the chips are low after the 12-month suspensions of ex-captain Steve Smith and his deputy David Warner over a ball-tampering scandal which also saw the previous coach Lehmann quit.

While Justin is resolute that he’ll help improve the behavior of the Australian team, a few incidents from his playing career may raise doubts in some quarters. During a Test against Sri Lanka in Colombo in 2004, Justin almost faced a sanction after he knocked off the bails while walking past the stumps.

ALSO READ: Justin Langer backs banned-trio

Australia belatedly appealed for a hit-wicket decision against Sri Lanka batsman Hashan Tillakaratne, before the umpires referred the decision to the third umpire to verify how the bail had been dislodged. Television replays made it pretty clear that the bail was dislodged by Justin’s hand while he crossed over the pitch to take up a new fielding position for the right-handed Thilan Samaraweera.

Despite having the television evidence, Langer insisted that he did not intentionally flick off the bail. ICC match referee Chris Broad afterward accepted Langer’s explanation and cleared the player of any wrongdoing.

Here is the video of the same:

During his career, in a match against Pakistan in Hobart in 1999, Langer appeared to be out caught behind off the bowling of Wasim Akram but was given not out. The video of the incident shows that the southpaw edged the ball and in a video shot more than 10 years later of the incident- Langer admitted that he had edged the ball.

ALSO READ:  Langer rates India tour as ‘ultimate’ challenge

In order to defend Langer In Langer’s one can only say that the players not walking is not viewed as cheating by many cricketers. Here is the video of the same:

There was also another such incident during a Test against Sri Lanka when Langer refused to walk despite video footage indicating that he had, in fact, played the ball off the face of his bat, before being caught in the slips!

In the video of the incident, it can be clearly seen that Justine wasn’t sure about playing the ball and ended up giving a dolly to Mahela Jayawardene in the slips but due to lack of appealing from the Islanders umpire didn’t give it out. The decision left the Sri Lankan seamer Chaminda Vaas unhappy. Here is the video of the complete episode:

Langer’s cricketing career lasted for around 20 years in which he played 360 first-class matches, scoring more than 28,000 first-class runs. He was also involved in the Australian team as an assistant coach for three years from November 2009 and has twice been a head coach on an interim basis – in an ODI tri-series in the Caribbean in 2016, and a home T20 series against Sri Lanka in 2017.