Trevor Bayliss, the World Cup-winning former England head coach, has emerged as the in-house favourite to take charge of the Australian men’s team should Justin Langer’s contract not be renewed after the Ashes.
The Guardian understands Bayliss is the preferred candidate to be the next head coach among the current support staff and senior players after a 12-month period that has delivered on-field success yet seen Langer’s methods questioned behind the scenes.
Sourced reports of player dissatisfaction at the 51-year-old’s supposedly intense and volatile approach first surfaced after the 2-1 defeat by India last January and led to several rounds of clear-the-air talks. Cricket Australia even released a statement last August backing the head coach, who is under contract until June 2022.
But while Langer’s recently stated hopes of a renewal appeared to be strengthened by Australia’s surprise victory at the T20 World Cup and the current 3-0 Ashes scoreline going into this week’s fifth Test in Hobart, Pat Cummins, the Test captain, notably declined to discuss the matter after the win in Melbourne.
Cummins said: “We’ll all sit down together after this series or whenever his tenure is up. His contract is up for renewal in a few months and we’ll deal with that then.”
Andrew McDonald, the popular assistant coach, is viewed by many inside Australian cricket to be a future head coach of the men’s team and has been a beneficiary of the previously hands-on Langer being forced to delegate more responsibilities to his support staff since discussions with the players.
But over the course of the current Ashes series a belief has grown in the set-up that the more experienced Bayliss would serve as an ideal immediate successor to Langer given a track record of setting up relaxed, player-led environments.
Bayliss, 59, remains hugely popular among the large New South Wales faction of the Australia dressing room from his two previous spells coaching the state side – most recently 2013 to 2015 – and also has strong links with its most prominent member, Cummins, through Penrith Cricket Club.
Since stepping down as England head coach in 2019 – a four-year stint that returned an Ashes win in 2015 and the World Cup four years later – Bayliss has worked on the franchise T20 circuit and currently heads up Sydney Thunder in the Big Bash League.
Asked about his ambitions last June, Bayliss told the Sydney Morning Herald: “The only full-time job I’d contemplate in the future if it came up would be the Australian job. But I’m very happy coaching two or three of the franchise teams around the world.”
Ben Oliver, Australia’s performance director, has said a consultation process over the head coach role involving players and staff will begin after the conclusion of the Ashes, but played down suggestions of splitting the role by way of format.
