Cricket Australia

Langer recently stepped down from his post of Australia's head coach after the 51-year-old former opener was told by Cricket Australia (CA) that he will get only a fresh six-month contract after his first term expired in June this year.

Australia defeated England 4-0 in the five-Test Ashes series. As Langer's resignation from the post of Australian head coach's job rocks the cricketing world, McCullum said that while the 51-year-old former opener did a great job of regaining the trust of the nation following the Sandpaper-gate scandal of 2018 in South Africa, the team's performance wasn't that impressive as was being made out to be.

"Thank you for everyone's well wishes. I have been overwhelmed by the support. Now to start the next chapter of my life, wherever that may take me. Rather than reply to all, please see my statement that went public today. Thanks again. JL. For now, I have another two weeks in quarantine in Perth before I can reunite with my family. In that time, I will reflect on the past and work out what the next chapter of my life may look like," wrote Langer on LinkedIn.

Langer stepped down as head coach of the Australian men's cricket team despite leading the side to its maiden ICC T20 World Cup title in the UAE and a 4-0 win in the recently-concluded Ashes after he reportedly felt humiliated by CA for offering him only a six-month contract renewal for his efforts. Gilchrist said it was good that Langer had resigned given that there were very "little" values coming from within Cricket Australia and the team, which he has stood for in his life.

Langer had taken charge of the Australian team in 2018 following the 'Sandpaper gate' scandal, and while he was reportedly unpopular with some player in the side, he guided the team to its maiden ICC T20 World Cup title triumph in the UAE in November last year and the 4-0 Ashes victory recently. Langer resigned from his post on Saturday, unhappy with the short-term contract extension offered by Cricket Australia (CA) after a marathon seven-hour board meeting.

Following the 51-year-old former Australian opener turning down the offer of a short-term contract extension, former all-rounder Andrew McDonald was installed as interim head coach. Langer's fate had been hanging in a balance for the last six months, and while he later guided Australia to its maiden ICC T20 World Cup title triumph in the UAE in November last and helped them win the Ashes 4-0 recently.

Following a meeting of CA's directors on Friday, a revised schedule for the three-Test, three-ODI and one-T20I tour of Pakistan was given the green light. The month-long tour could force some of the top Australian players to miss potentially four to five games of the IPL 2022, posing some serious questions in front of the team owners.

Starc, whose all-round performance during the Ashes was the key to the hosts winning the series 4-0, received the highest individual award largely due to his exploits in the Test series against England, with the 31-year-old playing all five games and grabbing 19 wickets at an average of 25.37. The 31-year-old Starc also became just the fifth pace bowler in 22 years to win the Medal to join the likes of Test skipper Pat Cummins, Mitchell Johnson, Brett Lee and Glenn McGrath as the only fast bowlers to win the top award since it was introduced in 2000.

England managed to survive the last two overs with one wicket in hand as the Ashes Test -- a part of the multi-format series that also includes ODIs and T20Is -- ended in a nerve-wracking stalemate. The match made a strong case for more women's Test matches in future, with the duration being extended to five days.

After being on the backfoot for a large part of the chase, Australia made a sensational comeback to take six wickets for 26 runs though they missed out on a win by just one scalp. "I still didn't know what happened in the last hour. We declared wanting to take those 10 wickets. Obviously, England batted really well but proud of the way we got back into the game taking wickets," said Meg after the post-match presentation ceremony.