Justin Langer has resigned as Head Coach of the Australia men’s cricket team after weeks of speculation about his future. His resignation came last weekend following an insulting six-month contract extension offer from Cricket Australia. Clearly Langer was not part of the long-term plans and his resignation was not only inevitable, but sparked a melee of accusatory vindictiveness, largely aimed at the administrators, captain Pat Cummins and any other current player suspected of playing a part in the coach’s demise.

Former players, most of whom had donned the Baggy Green alongside Langer, were scathing in their attacks, telling anyone who would listen exactly how disgraceful the whole affair had been.

Highly respected commentator, legend of the game and morality standard bearer Shane Warne weighed in with his take on the respect that should be afforded to a head coach.

“To treat the head coach the way they have, it’s an absolute disgrace what they’ve done,” Warne blasted during a recent podcast.

“When we had John Buchanan, half the team didn’t like him. That’s a fact.

“We never spoke to the ACB. We respected the position. We respected the person. We might not have liked him and asked him out for dinner, but we respected the position and treated him accordingly.

“Geoff Marsh, Bob Simpson. A lot of guys didn’t like those guys. But they respected the position and the person. What’s better, to be respected or liked? Respected every day of the week.”

Of course Warne had respectfully said during his playing days under Buchanan that the only coach he needed was the one to drive him to the ground. But he never said that to the ACB, just the media.

“Forget it’s Justin Langer. It’s just the treatment of Cricket Australia and the way they have handled the coach of the Australian cricket team. It’s been pathetic,” never short of a word Warne continued.

“His brutalness, his intensity and his kick up the backside to the players. You know why? They needed it!”

Former fast bowling double century maker Jason Gillespie tore into Cummins for his lack of support when quizzed about Langer’s coaching future.

“Cummins might have delivered with the ball during the Ashes series, but he has failed his first big test as captain pretty miserably,” Gillespie said in a column someone wrote for him.

“His recent interviews have been gutless by not respecting his coach when he could have been upfront from the start.”

Langer’s one time work husband and cook book author Matthew Hayden wasn’t happy either.

“This was a bloke (Langer) that won the Ashes, stayed back basically in Melbourne for the entire time while this dragged on for a month. The whole thing just reeks of being orchestrated from basically the moment all of this garbage started coming out in the middle of last year. You could see that the writing was on the wall,” Hayden said with tear-filled eyes.

Former captain and current cricket guru Ricky Ponting added his two-cents’ worth.

“It’s a really sad day as far as Australian cricket is concerned,” Ponting bemoaned.

“Reading the tea leaves, it seems, as he would say, a very small group of the playing group, haven’t loved the way he’s gone about it.

“And that’s been enough to force a man that’s put his life, heart and soul into Australian cricket and done what I believe is a sensational job in turning around the culture and the way the Australian cricket team has been looked at over the last three or four years, out of his dream job.”

Finally Cummins could take no more and issued a lengthy statement about the whole sorry saga. In it he left no doubt that he and much of the playing group, whilst appreciative of all Langer had put in and achieved, were ready for change. They had simply given honest feedback to a review of Langer’s time in the position and had made it abundantly clear that they would be much happier if he rolled up his yoga mat and flew off into a Western Australia sunset and quarantine.

“To be better players for Australia, from this solid foundation, we need a new style of coaching and skill set,” Cummins’ statement read.

“This was the feedback the players gave to Cricket Australia. And it’s the feedback I understand support staff also gave.”

So the players basically believe that they had ceased to develop under Langer’s guidance. His boorish methods had played their part in rebuilding the team’s morale after the sand paper debacle in South Africa, but his time was now up and the players needed new direction.

Former left-arm quick Mitchell Johnson hit on an interesting point when considering Langer’s replacement and the role of head coach.

“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?” Johnson speculated.

Despite a career littered with stray deliveries, Johnson was remarkably accurate with this insight. He is absolutely right, the role itself has been rendered redundant by the latest developments.

These cricketers are among the best in the world, they gained their sometimes tenuous places in the national side through natural talent and years of hard work and dedication to their craft. The last thing they need is an frustrated dictator, barking orders demanding they put in extra hours in the nets. These blokes know their games inside and out and if they are having an off run, it might just as likely be caused by their fragile emotional state, induced by the constant hostile interactions with a control freak of a coach.

Cricket Australia should heed the sage words of Warne and abandon the role completely. Instead of having a head coach running around like he’s in charge, each player should be allowed to appoint their own personal assistant. Someone to help carry their kits bags, make sure they are up early enough to make it to games. Someone with a bit of knowledge of the player’s game, just enough to throw in the occasional “mate, your right shoulder may be squaring up a tad early on those on-drives.”

This assistant would of course be in addition to the myriad of physios, doctors, dieticians, sport physiologists, fitness trainers and manicurists the team already needs to function.

There are of course several head coach functions that will need to be attended to and here the captain would be required to step up. It would become part of his job to name training days and times, chair team meetings, set curfews and tinker with batting orders. The captain would also need to spend a bit more time answering inane questions from the media, but this whole experience has well prepared Cummins for that.

Interim coach Andrew “Ronald” McDonald should be informed that his duties will cease once the tour of Pakistan and T20 World Cup is completed – he can pretty much have Langer’s six month extension. At the end of the T20 World Cup the players will be given time to appoint their assistants before preparing for the next series.

Never again will Australia’s players be burdened with the pressure of performing under the constant critical eye of a so-called head coach. They will answer only to the selectors for their efforts and their talents will no doubt blossom with the aid of their personal assistants.