Justin Langer can go out on a high or risk return to Flatmate Syndrome | Geoff Lemon

The Australia coach has won the T20 World Cup and the Ashes in quick succession but, as ever, familiarity breeds contempt

Before England’s Test visit in 2017, the Australian spinner Nathan Lyon offered a line much repeated since about hoping to end some England careers. It was taken as it was intended, as a piece of pre-series bluff and bluster. The thing is, Lyon was close to the truth. In the Ashes-obsessed Test calendars for the English and Australian men’s teams, results in that series do make or break careers, on the field and off. Cricket cycles and career cycles have their ends and beginnings marked by these contests.

Plenty of players have their last appearance in an Ashes defeat, tending to be pensioned off thereafter in an effort to make whatever comes next seem like a fresh start. Captains too tend to call it quits – see Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke and, if not for an early newspaper story, Tim Paine. An Australian coach can survive a loss in England if it isn’t dire, but would never survive one in Australia. England’s current coach, Chris Silverwood, is hotly tipped to hit the exit even with two matches of the ongoing series still to play.

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