Australia You Little* Beauty: Inside Test Cricket's Dream Team by Justin Langer

Author:Justin Langer [Langer, Justin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Australia, Autobiography, Biography, Cricket, History, Recreation, Sport, Sports
ISBN: 9781742373515
Google: zv47mAEACAAJ
Amazon: 1742373518
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 2010-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

Justin losing his place in the Australian side at the beginning of the 2001 tour was probably the lowest point in our cricketing life. I say ‘our’ because I always felt so much a part of his career, almost as if I was out there with him. But what happened to him on the field directly affected the rest of the family, and this appeared to be the end of the road at Test level, at least on a regular basis. We had just committed to building a house, among other things, and the loss of his place in the side would also have an impact financially if his Test career was over.

Justin was devastated and I was sitting at home with a new baby. Should I go to be with him, or would that simply complicate things? He was still on tour and I had always stayed at home when he was away.

Amid the gloom, Justin’s father, Colin, was the optimist. We’ve always had a fun, teasing relationship, and he boldly declared that he had no doubt his son would be back. Not only that, but he insisted Justin would be opening the batting before the tour was over. I dismissed the notion entirely. It seemed impossible to fit him back into such a successful team, and they were hardly going to drop Matthew Hayden or Michael Slater—or so it seemed.

Colin dared me to take a bet of 100 gold shekels that he would be right. After asking what a shekel was and learning it was a gold coin, I accepted, even agreeing to his terms that it be delivered in a calico bag. When we saw each other over the next few weeks, he would start singing this ridiculous song he’d made up; the lyrics went something like this: ‘Have you been to the shekel shop, collecting shekels do not stop …’ Colin would sing it to antagonise me, which at least created some lighter moments in an otherwise dire few weeks.

Things got so grim that I decided to go to England for a week to be with Justin. I couldn’t stay home when he was feeling so bad, even though Sophie was so young. I took the next flight to the UK— after pleading with the Passport Office because my passport had expired and Sophie didn’t have one—and we spent a few days talking and coming to terms with the future.

By the time I had to return home to Perth we both felt better and had accepted the situation. On the morning of my departure, we were in our hotel room. I was packing and Justin was getting ready for training when the phone rang. It was Steve Waugh. He had news. Michael Slater had been dropped and Justin was back in the side, this time as an opening batsman.

Justin hung up and we danced on the bed like lunatics, just as we had five years before on the front lawn at Wembley when he’d got his first recall.

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