'No one backed him' - Hayden emotional after Langer steps down from Australia coaching role
Hayden also lashed out at Cummins after the captain insisted that reviewing Langer's suitability for the role was fair in a high-performance review.
An emotional Matthew Hayden tore into Australia Test captain Pat Cummins as well as the other Aussie players after Justin Langer stepped down as the head coach of the side on Saturday. Hayden, who was the opening partner of Langer for a large part of his Test career, said that "no one backed" Langer.
Langer, under whose guidance Australia won the T20 World Cup and the Ashes series 4-0, stepped down after facing complaints from players about his coaching style for months.
"It was absolutely clear that no one backed him," Hayden told ABC Radio on Saturday, as quoted by Fox Sports Australia.
"If you listen to the Australian captain speak the other day, there was not one mention of any sort of commendation or support.
"That would have been extremely hurtful.
"How do you reckon he'd be going? To hear the Australian captain on Sunrise offer no support and commendation. How would you feel?"
Hayden also lashed out at Cummins after the captain insisted that reviewing Langer's suitability for the role was fair in a high-performance review.
"And now we hear Pat Cummins saying, 'This is a high performance environment, we all go through a high performance review'. I'm sorry Pat but that's garbage … this just reeks of being orchestrated," said Hayden.
The former Australia opener further pointed out that Langer had won the Ashes for the side and "stayed back" in Melbourne despite the situation being "dragged on for a month," adding that it seems "orchestrated."
"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," said Hayden.
"You could see that the writing was on the wall. If I had a bet back then that Justin Langer would have retained his spot at the end of his contract, I would have put my whole life's savings on him not doing it."
