An emotional Matthew Hayden has taken aim at the national men's cricket team, saying the players showed a lack of support for Justin Langer during the late stages of his coaching tenure.
Hayden shed tears as he spoke to ABC Sport following this morning's confirmation that Langer had resigned as national men's head coach.
Langer, who was appointed to the role in the wake of 2018's ball-tampering scandal, had met with CA officials on Friday night.
This followed CA's marathon board meeting earlier in the day in which Langer's future as coach was discussed at length.
In a statement, CA said it offered Langer a short-term extension to his current contract, which he "sadly" opted not to accept.
CA said Langer decided to resign with "immediate effect". The move follows Australia's recent 4-0 Ashes series win and its victory in the T20 World Cup last November.
Andrew McDonald has been appointed as interim head coach.
Hayden said Langer had been let down by the players for much of the past 12 months as rumours circulated they were dissatisfied with his coaching style.
"If he was waiting for the current Australian cricket team to be presenting a face of care, I dare say they won't be and that's, to me, the real sadness around this," he told ABC Sport.
Pat Cummins, who was appointed men's Test captain ahead of the Ashes after Tim Paine's resignation, was one of the players who met with CA last year to raise concerns about Langer's coaching style.
In his media appearances this week, Cummins failed to endorse Langer as coach and said it was CA's responsibility to handle the "evaluation process" of his role.
Hayden, who formed one of Australia's greatest opening partnerships alongside Langer, said he disagreed with Cummins's interpretation of how CA was handling discussions about his former teammate's future as coach.
"This was not a healthy process," he said.
"You could see that the writing was on the wall.
"If I had a bet back then that Justin Langer would have retained his spot at the end of his contract, I would have put my whole life's savings on him not doing it."
Former Test captain Ricky Ponting said he had hoped Cummins would have publicly backed Langer.
But Ponting admitted Cummins faced significant pressure.
"Pat's been put in a pretty difficult situation as captain," he said.
"If it's not just him, if there are other players that are coming to him to let him know that they feel Justin's not the right man, then I think that puts Pat in a difficult position."
'A leaking boat'
Hayden said the players and CA deserved blame for how reports of dissatisfaction about his coaching became public.
"It is such a leaking boat, this so-called high-performance culture within cricket," he said.
"There is no inner sanctum anymore."
Hayden said CA had shown no respect for how Langer managed the national team after the ball-tampering scandal in South Africa, which he said created "one of the most toxic environments of Australian sport".
He said Langer was responsible for welcoming Steve Smith and David Warner back into the fold after their bans expired in 2019.
"Where would Davey Warner be right now if Justin Langer wasn't the coach? Where would Steve Smith be?" Hayden said.
Hayden said Langer had brought back respect to the Australian men's team.
"We, the Australian cricket community, loved Justin because he came in and said, 'No way, what we're going to do is play this game in a manner that is going to make Australians proud again,'" he said.
Langer 'forced' to resign
Australian Test great Mitchell Johnson said he was "angry" and "disappointed" to learn of Langer's resignation.
"You've got to look at some facts and the facts are JL has done an extremely good job. He got the team out of a very dark place," he said.
Johnson said Langer might have felt insulted by CA's offer of a short-term contract.
"I just feel like he has been forced into this. I don't blame him," he said.
Johnson said whoever was appointed as Langer's long-term replacement might feel unsure where they stood.
"What does the next coach do when they come in? Do they do everything that they are told to do by Cricket Australia and the players?" he said.
Player power plays a role
Legendary ABC commentator Jim Maxwell said Langer's decision confirmed player power is at its peak within Australian men's cricket.
"It seems to me that over the period of his tenure as coach it hasn't been a comfortable relationship with all the players, looking at the comments from Pat Cummins in the last 24 hours," he said.
"[Going forward], we are going to be looking at Pat Cummins as the man in charge of the Australian team.
"As much as the coach will have some input, Pat's very much the man in charge, and that hasn't always been the case with Australian captains if you go over the last 30 or 40 years."
Maxwell said whoever replaced Langer as permanent head coach would need to adopt a different approach to the position.
"We've got personality issues, we've got stability [issues] and we've got the performance of the team, which is outstanding," he said.
"[We have to hope] whoever it is can manage it without it becoming the kind of personality-driven exercise that it seemed to become more and more with Justin involved.
"With his passion and intensity, it was a bit of overload about his position with Australian cricket. It needed to be a bit more [off to the side] than out in the middle of the road and attracting all this media attention and conjecture about whether or not he should be kept on."
Langer may not be lost to international coaching, with England having expressed interest in his services.
Speaking prior to Langer's resignation, Andrew Strauss — England's interim director of cricket — said the Australian might be a suitable replacement for Chris Silverwood, who stepped down as coach following the men's Ashes series defeat.
"I know him well and on the surface he's done a very good job with that Australian cricket team so I wouldn't rule him out," he said.
Strauss said a coach from outside of England might be what was needed to reverse the team's fortunes on the field.
"I personally feel someone with an outside view who can check and challenge the thoughts within the dressing room is a healthy thing," he said.
