Ricky Ponting has blasted Cricket Australia for their "embarrassing" handling of head coach Justin Langer 's departure and Tim Paine 's exit as captain.
Langer quit as coach after rejecting the offer of a short-term extension to his current contract, which was due to expire in June.
The 51-year-old had been in charge since 2018 and recently presided over Australia's first ever T20 World Cup win and a dominant 4-0 victory in the Ashes.
His resignation has finally put an end to months of speculation over his future, much of which has played out publicly, with rumours of a rift between Langer and members of the squad.
Ponting, a former team-mate of Langer, has leapt to his defence, labelling his departure "a really sad day as far as Australian cricket is concerned".
Ponting also took aim at Cricket Australia for the way they have handled Langer's exit, drawing comparisons with the way Paine resigned as skipper on the eve of the Ashes after details emerged of a historic sexting scandal.
"It is a really sad day as far as Australian cricket is concerned and if you look back it has been a really poor six months on the whole in the way that Cricket Australia has handled some of the better people in the Australian cricket - Justin Langer and Tim Paine," Ponting told ABC Melbourne.
"I think it’s been almost embarrassing the way they have handled those two cases.
"Me knowing Justin the way that I do, he was very keen to continue in the role, as he should have been after what’s been the best coaching period of his international career having just won the T20 World Cup and then the 4-0 result in the Ashes.
"It seems like a very strange time for a coach to be departing.
"Reading the tea leaves it sounds like a few — and as he says to me a small group in the playing group and a couple of other staff around the team — haven’t entirely loved the way he has gone about it.
"That’s been enough to force a man who has put his life and heart and soul into Australian cricket and done a sensational job at turning around the culture and the way the Australian team has been looked at in the last few years to push him out of the job."
