Former Australian cricketer Ian Healy had words of praise for Australian Test captain, Pat Cummins, and his method of dealing with the harsh words from Justin Langer’s former teammates.

Following Langer’s resignation as the head coach, several of his old teammates issued statements berating Cummins and co. for not supporting Langer. In response, Cummins was straightforward and said he is standing up for his mates.

“It’s good isn’t it (that this is Cummins’ team). I allowed myself when I saw that press conference to picture Keith Miller. They were very strong words that he was saying in a nice manner, which is exactly what the team needs to know.”

“He’s got our backs, he’s a good bloke, but he’s able to make tough decisions and agree or disagree with tough decisions that others make for him, in this case, Cricket Australia. On this occasion, he agreed with it, and was able to say JL shouldn’t be surprised, we’ve talked about it for two years,” Healy told on SEN’s Pat and Heals show.

“Two years in, it’s time to sit back and let the players run the show” – Ian Healy

After the Sandpaper Gate, Langer took over and he was responsible for restoring the hurt Aussie pride. He managed to do so successfully but his management style became too intense for the players after a while.

“Langer had Tim Paine first, a brand new captain who had a lot to do together. JL was able to mold him and do it together and maybe even dominate. But then two years in, it’s time to sit back and let the players and Tim Paine run the show.”

“Pat Cummins was (just) a player then, he would have had an opinion, ‘Geez, how long’s this going to last?’ But he became captain after Tim resigned and all those opinions were still there and there was change. One thing I can’t work out if there was a change, he (Cummins) says there was a change in JL and it was a good change, but we’ve decided it wasn’t sustainable,” Healy added.

Langer resigned this week and he was replaced by Andrew McDonald as the interim head coach.

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