The Australian men's cricket team has had a season out of the box. They took out the T20 World Cup title, the one major competition they had never won, and did so without anyone ever thinking they were a chance to do so. They then returned home to Australia to defend the Ashes, something they did handsomely and without ever looking as though they were in trouble, eventually winning the five Test series by 4-0. And shortly, they will depart to Pakistan to play their first cricket in that country since 1998, and thus be a flagbearer to help kickstart the popularity of the game at international level in that country. So, everything at the moment is golden, right?

Well, apparently not.

Today, after 12 months of infighting and leaked stories that have consistently undermined the Australian team’s head coach’s position without any actual source being revealed, and despite the head coach agreeing to mediation with CA to implement changes that had apparently been a directive of those leaking their disapproval of the coach, Justin Langer had come to the end of his rope, and decided to resign from the position rather than have his reputation tarnished any longer by CA’s inability to make a decision on the matter at hand.

So how did we get to this position, where a successful coach can be cast aside in such appalling fashion, while the perpetrators are able to remain anonymous? And just how will this affect the team going forward? On today’s episode I will speculate on all that has occurred and give you my ten cents worth – all completely free from any facts on the matter – on this edition of The Casual Mankadder.