Following a meeting with Cricket Australia on Friday night, Justin Langer resigned as Australia’s men’s head coach.

Langer’s management business, DSEG, released a statement on Saturday morning when he was flying from Melbourne to Perth.

“DSEG confirms that our client Justin Langer has this morning tendered his resignation from the Australian men’s cricket team,” the statement said. “The resignation follows a meeting with Cricket Australia last evening. The resignation is effective immediately.”

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James Henderson, Langer’s manager, who also represents Ricky Ponting, Tim Paine, and Cameron Green, issued his own statement on Twitter.

“As a player Justin retired on top after a 5-0 Ashes whitewash,” Henderson wrote. 

“Today, despite the views of a faceless few, he finishes his time as Australian cricket coach winning the T20 World Cup and the Ashes. Lest we forget what JL took over in 2018.”

The announcement comes less than 24 hours after a lengthy eight-hour CA board meeting during which Langer’s contract was extensively reviewed. Langer’s current contract was up for renewal in June, and he was looking for a long-term deal.

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Between the end of the fifth Ashes Test in Hobart and yesterday’s board meeting, Langer had repeated contract negotiations with CA chief executive Nick Hockley and CA head of national teams Ben Oliver.

Following the meeting, CA issued a statement announcing that it had entered into an agreement saying “confidential discussions with Justin and the outcome will be announced as soon as possible.”

After those negotiations, Langer walked away from the job he wanted. It’s apparent that senior players’ opinions influenced Langer’s decision to resign. For about a year, Langer’s relationship with certain players had been strained.

The players conducted crisis meetings with Langer while he was in hotel quarantine in Adelaide following a catastrophic T20I tour of Bangladesh in August, led by former Test captain Tim Paine, current Test captain Pat Cummins, and current limited-overs captain Aaron Finch.

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Hockley and former CA chairman Earl Eddings moderated the meetings. Langer will lead the team through the T20 World Cup and the Ashes, according to a statement provided by CA. During his confinement, Langer held around 30 individual zoom meetings with players and staff to hear complaints about his coaching approach. He pledged to adapt his approach, which he believes he did during the T20 World Cup and Ashes, when he was significantly less involved in day-to-day coaching and far more relaxed than before.

Australia dominated the T20 World Cup and the Ashes, and Langer assumed that would be enough to keep his job going ahead.

When questioned repeatedly in the media if they wanted Langer to stay as head coach in the long run, Cummins and Finch remained silent. Hockley and Oliver discreetly consulted both captains about Langer’s situation. That criticism was submitted to the board, and Langer resigned as a result of Friday night meetings with Hockley and the board.