Justin Langer DENIES claims he is at war with Pat Cummins

Justin Langer has clarified that he is not aggrieved by Pat Cummins amid suggestions that he is at “war” with the Australian cricket captain, insisting that he has “a lot of respect” for the fast bowler.

Langer claimed this week that he was betrayed by “cowards” who leaked information against him during his last months in charge of the Australian team before his surprise dismissal.

He lifted the lid on his relationship with captain Cummins and spoke about his frustrations with comments coming from the media instead of his players.

But he has moved to deny claims of a breakup between him and his former star.

Ironically, I spoke to Patty on Monday, we had a long conversation about how the team was doing, how he was doing, how his family was doing. And some of this crap is complete and utter crap,” he told Channel 7 News Perth.

“I have a lot of respect for Patty Cummins, I think she’s a brilliant player, I think she’s an exceptional human being. So any idea that there’s a war going on between me and Patty couldn’t be further from the truth.

‘There was some sort of conversation about associating the word coward with Pat Cummins. If you listen to the podcast, I was actually praising Pat, I was praising Finchy, I was praising Tim Paine for giving me his opinion. In fact, he was congratulating them, not criticizing them as it turned out. It turns into a wildfire, what do you do?

In his interview with the Backchat podcast, Langer maintained that he had the support of the majority of the players at the time of his firing.

Langer was not impressed by Cummins’ communication skills during his time as head coach.

However, he says he has “a lot of respect” for the fast pitcher and has denied the breakup rumors.

“Everyone was being nice to me, but I was reading about these things,” Langer said.

‘Many journalists use the word ‘source’. I would say, change that word to ‘coward’.

‘Because what do you mean by what a source says?

“Either they have an ax to grind on someone and they’re not going to come and tell you to your face, or they’re just leaking stuff for their own agenda.”

Referring to his relationship with Cummins, Langer initially said: ‘I spoke to Pat Cummins. He told me about five times, ‘This could be brutally honest.’ I said, “Pat, there’s nothing brutal about your comments. What’s brutal is that I hear it behind my back through the media or from sources. Nobody tells me. Tell me.”