IPL franchise Lucknow Super Giants on Friday announced that they had appointed Australia’s Justin Langer as their head coach for the upcoming season after parting ways with former coach Andy Flower. “JUST IN: LANGER!,” the team’s official Twitter handle tweeted.
Langer has also served as the coach of the Australian team, taking over the reins in the wake of the infamous 2018 ball-tampering incident during the Cape Town Test against South Africa.
“Lucknow Super Giants have appointed legendary former Australian cricket team coach and batsman Justin Langer as their team head coach. As the two-year contract of Andy Flower comes to an end, Lucknow Supergiants thanks Andy Flower for his contribution,” LSG said in a statement.
Earlier in the day, LSG had sent out a farewell message to Flower who had helped the team has qualify for the playoffs in the last two seasons.
The franchise thanked Flower for his services. “Dear Andy, Today it’s farewell, but it’ll never be goodbye because you’ll always be one of our own. Thank you for everything! ,” they wrote in the Twitter post.
Before joining LSG in 2021 Flower worked with Punjab Kings as an assistant coach for two seasons. Owner of the franchise Sanjiv Goenka at the time said: “As a player and a Coach Andy has left an indelible mark in the history of cricket . We respect his professionalism and hope he will work with our vision and add value to our team.”
Flower, who was appointed in 2021 had guided Lucknow to back to back 3rd place finishes in the 2022 and 2023 editions of the Indian Premier League.
The former Zimbabwe captain and wicketkeeper-batter Flower is one of England’s most successful coaches, guiding them to three consecutive Ashes wins in this millennium, which includes triumphs in 2009 and 2013 at home, and most impressively, Down Under in 2010-11.
He had also joined the Australian camp ahead of the World Test Championship final against India in a consultancy role.
Meanwhile, Langer, who had formed a potent opening combination with Matthew Hayden in Test cricket, was appointed as the coach of Australian team in May 2018.
During his tenure, Australia beat England 4–0 in the Ashes series. And in 2021, under his charge, Australia also won the T20 World Cup for the first time.
Apart from this, Perth Scorchers also won the Big Bash title three times under the guidance of Langer.
The southpaw had rejected Cricket Australia’s short term contract offer after guiding the team to an Ashes win at home in 2021-2022. Langer had claimed he did not have the full support of the players and board and therefore decided against extending his tenure as the head coach.
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