John Buchanan, Australia’s two-time World Cup-winning coach, has given a peice of advice to Jutin Langer, whose team lost against India in the recently-concluded Test series.
Langer has been under-fire for showing his emotions when his team is under pressure. In fact, his emotional nature has also been well documented in ‘The Test: A New Era for Australia’s Team’. John Buchanan has reckoned that the 50-year-old will have to understand that coaching is not a “popularity contest” and he will always be “off-side” to some people.
However, Buchanan, under whom Australian team won 16 straight Tests, also reckoned that the “heart on the sleeve” methodology is part of Justin Langer’s coaching style.
“Every coach has to work out how best they coach. For JL, that heart on the sleeve stuff is very much about his coaching methodology, the way that he coaches.
“When you listen to Justin, he is a wonderful storyteller and he tells it as it is. He understands the emotions of the game, having been through it himself, but also understands the emotions the players are going through at any stage.
“If he believes in his own coaching methodology, then he has actually got to deliver it all the time. It’s no good being a coach who wears his heart on his sleeve one day and doesn’t the next day.
“As I say, it’s not a popularity contest. You will always off-side some people but hopefully in what you are doing, you will at least retain 80 per cent of the people 80 per cent of the time.
