As a man who was prepared to risk his life to win his last Test match, Justin Langer can feel singularly unappreciated. Langer, 36 yesterday, will become Australia’s oldest postwar opener when the Ashes series begins tomorrow, yet his place in the side has fired a heated sporting debate in this country.
Newspapers and TV stations have run polls on whether this most pugnacious of cricketers should be dumped. Not much of a way to recognise the courage it took to pad up again in Johannesburg in April, still concussed after being struck on the head by Makhaya Ntini in the opening overs of his 100th Test.
Langer was ready to ignore the medical warnings that another such blow could be fatal. Thankfully, Australia’s tailenders spared him, but it is clear that an episode which might have ended his career has had the opposite effect.
“When I got back from South Africa, I wondered if I could go on putting the same effort into becoming a better player,” Langer said. “I gave myself three weeks to decide but it took about three days.” Such is his devotion to the game, Langer has even played for his club team in Perth this winter as part of the process of convincing himself, and others, that no mental scars remain from his Johannesburg ordeal.
“When I got hit, I did wonder if it would have an impact on me,” he said. “But I’ve played a lot of cricket since and I feel normal. No one can say they don’t feel nervous about getting hit, but I’ve had plenty of short stuff all my life.
Advertisement
Langer remembers little of the Johannesburg game but has clear recall of the first ball of the last Ashes series. “Steve Harmison hit a perfect length and it fizzed past me and hit [Geraint] Jones’s gloves very hard. There was an intensity there and I could see England were all up for it.
“The cricket they played in that series was awesome but the reality is we lost two games. We’ve won 11 Tests out of 12 since. In terms of England, what’s at stake is bragging rights as much as anything.”
This series, though, was “a massive carrot” in his decision to keep playing and he will be lean and hungry for the challenge. A martial arts expert, Langer keeps fit by boxing.
“I’m in as good a shape as when I was 25. As you get older, I think you have to train more, not less. You’ve got a responsibility to the team.”