Glenn Maxwell has revealed his tempestuous relationship with Justin Langer as coach of the Australian team, including how the pair had a heated argument on Allan Border Medal night in February 2020, when Langer questioned why Maxwell was missing a series.
The volatility of the Langer era is laid bare in The Showman, Maxwell’s book written with the broadcaster and journalist Adam Collins that is released next week.
Glenn Maxwell is now happy to say that he and Justin Langer have a good relationship.Credit: Getty Images
It contrasts the handling of his mental health struggles in 2019 with accusations of “engineering” an injury to be unavailable for a white ball trip to South Africa and instead attend a friend’s wedding.
Maxwell also unfurls the story of how he was directed not to commit to too much franchise cricket in 2018 to be ready for Australian Test duty, only to be left out when the squad to play Pakistan in the UAE was announced.
In relaxed mode: Glenn Maxwell takes it easy at home.
Funnily enough, Maxwell is now happy to say that he and Langer have a good relationship, built on a shared love of golf and footy in particular. But things were very awkward between the pair after their run in at the AB Medal.
“That was a bit of a low point,” Maxwell told this masthead. “I also didn’t know how to take it because it was the Cricket Australia doctor who had seen me. I went to the doctor and said ‘I’m not sure about this but my elbow can’t straighten’. He had a look at it and said ‘you need surgery as soon as possible’.
“It was the day before the AB Medal, and I went and told Trevor Hohns, he was brilliant about it, ‘completely understand, it’s a shame we won’t have you there, you might want to have a chat to JL’. So I spoke to him and then yeah, he went pretty hard. I didn’t know whether I should apologise or just walk away. It made it really awkward from then on in.”
As Maxwell puts it in the book: “When JL saw me, he was not pleased. He brought up the wedding, putting it to me directly that I had engineered missing the tour, and adding that my first games back for Australia should have been the priority.
“I blew up. ‘Are you saying I’ve faked an injury?’ I said, probably with several expletives in there for decoration. He replied that I had been fine for the BBL final, I was going to be fine in time for the IPL, yet was suddenly unfit for this tour.
“I reminded him, forcefully again, that it was CA’s medical staff who had recommended this immediate operation, and that I couldn’t bat properly at the end of the Big Bash because of the problem that hadn’t then been diagnosed. He seemed to think I could tough it out and be fine to play, despite the scan and the doctor’s advice.
“It was only a couple of months since JL had been brilliant when realising that I was in strife, and had given the support I needed. But this latest episode was another example of where, for whatever reason, there was some sort of block for him when it came to me. I never could explain it.”
Langer was contacted for comment.
Glenn Maxwell and teammates with Justin Langer in 2018.Credit: AP
As for the episode later described as “careless whispers” by Langer, Maxwell wrote that he had been left feeling “empty” by a sequence of events that built up expectations of a return to the Test team following the Newlands scandal.
“I was so fresh and so excited that I had already packed my kit at home with all the bits and pieces I would need for Test cricket, including, of course, my baggy green,” he wrote. “A bit keen, but confident about what was coming. And then it didn’t. The Test squad came out, the email landed, I scrolled down my phone, and my name was nowhere.
“It was such a cruel blow and underpinned with such dishonesty. Of course selectors have the prerogative to go different ways – things change. In this case, though, I’d been denied the chance to bolster my case in England, denied the A tour because I was deemed too senior, and after all that got the kick in the teeth. It was handled abysmally by all involved. The year that promised so much instead left me empty.”
Maxwell has seldom taken time to reflect on his journey, and regards the process of writing the book as an empowering one.
“There was so much internal anxiety that I was almost beating myself up before I got there,” he said. “I hope a lot of that stuff is relatable to people. To have your biggest vulnerabilities put out there and exposed to the world, and explain how I saw things, is a bit empowering.”
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