Clearly he didn't get the length of contract extension offer that he was after so it hasn't been ideal, but I don't subscribe to the fact that it was individuals that were key to making the decision, said selection chief, George Bailey.
Selection panel chief George Bailey has denied Justin Langer's claims that a lack of backing from senior players and support staff was responsible for the former opening batsman's departure as Australia coach.
Langer quit the post on Saturday despite leading Australia to victory at the Twenty20 World Cup before handing England a 4-0 defeat in the Ashes when he was only offered a six-month contract extension until October's Twenty20 World Cup finals.
"I feel for him," Bailey told reporters on Tuesday.
"Absolutely no one deserves to have the saga that has been played out as publicly as it has been.
"Clearly he didn't get the length of contract extension offer that he was after so it hasn't been ideal, but I don't subscribe to the fact that it was individuals that were key to making the decision."
Speculation over Langer's position at the helm of the team had been growing for months amid reports of player discontent over his coaching style.
He claimed in his resignation letter to Cricket Australia Chief Executive Nick Hockley "several senior players and a couple of support staff don't support me moving forward".
Langer was appointed in 2018 in the aftermath of a ball-tampering scandal in South Africa and Bailey praised the work he had done to regain public support across all formats of the game.
Test batsman Usman Khawaja said Test captain Pat Cummins and one-day skipper Aaron Finch should come out to clear the air.
"There’s obviously a lot of ex-players talking about the playing group," Khawaja told reporters.
"I think at some stage, one of the captains, Finchy or Patty, will probably have to stand up and answer some questions just to get rid of all the speculation that’s going around and to just put an end to it all."
Khawaja sympathised with Langer calling him a "legend of a bloke".
"He brought humility back to the Australian team ... I know what we played like before he was coach and I know what we played like when he was coach," added Khawaja.
Chappell calls past players Langer's 'PR machine', supports Cummins
Australian great Ian Chappell has called the past players supporting Justin Langer as his "PR machine" and threw his weight behind skipper Pat Cummins, who had received flak for not backing the former coach in the lead-up to his resignation.
Former cricketers such as Ricky Ponting, Matthew Hayden, Mitchell Johnson, Adam Gilchrist and Shane Warne have slammed Cricket Australia and the members of the national team, especially Cummins, for not publicly supporting Langer, who was offered a short-term extension which he declined.
"It's easy to lambast Cricket Australia, because they are not very good, and it was only to be expected, their reaction,” Chappell told the Wide World of Sports this week.
"What annoys me is two things; the fact Pat Cummins, who has probably been as honest as you can be in this sort of thing, that he's copped a bit of a pasting… and the Justin Langer PR machine has been at work, and in a lot of cases that's been believed."
Cummins was one of the players who had raised concerns about Langer's coaching style last year.
Chappell said that Cummins should have a say in deciding Australia's next coach.
"And within reason I think the captain has got to get the coach that he gets on with, and works well with," he said.
Langer had guided Australia to the T20 World Cup win and the Ashes series triumph. He stepped down last Saturday after facing complaints from players about his coaching style for months.
Former New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum lauded Langer for the T20 World Cup title but was critical of his overseas Test record as Australia coach.
“England are hopeless, so I think anyone that was at the helm in the Ashes, they would have won that,” he toldSENZ Breakfast.
“The T20 World Cup was a really good performance, but aside from that, the performance was just a bit middling for an Australian cricket side. He didn't win a Test series away from home, which for an Australian side is pretty average really, and he wasn't overwhelmingly successful.
“Yes, he did a good job while he was there, but I can kind of see why they wanted to head in a different direction as well."
Under Langer, Australia lost to Pakistan in the UAE 1-0, and claimed a 2-2 draw at the 2019 Ashes.
Gillespie rules himself out for Australia head coach role
Former Australia fast bowler Jason Gillespie is not interested in replacing Justin Langer as the team's head coach, the 46-year-old said on Tuesday.
Langer resigned last weekend, shortly after leading Australia to a 4-0 Ashes series win over England, with Cricket Australia saying he had rejected a short-term extension of his contract.
Gillespie had been considered as a potential replacement for Langer, but he said he is committed to his coaching role at South Australia.
"I am not putting myself up for any jobs, I'm fully committed to South Australian cricket," Gillespie, a former Test team mate of Langer, told reporters.
"I've got a lot of work to do here and I'm absolutely loving it.
"It's nice to be thought of in that way, but it's not something I'm entertaining," Gillespie added when asked if he was flattered to have been mentioned as a possible successor to Langer.
Assistant coach Andrew McDonald, who will lead the squad on an interim basis, is also a potential candidate.
Australian Trevor Bayliss, the former England coach, has also been linked to the role.
