Five contenders to coach the Australian men's cricket team

In the wake of Darren Lehmann's resignation as the head coach of the Australian men's cricket team following the ball tampering scandal in the third test against South Africa last weekend, there are now questions about who should be the next coach.

Cricket Australia has issued a statement saying that they will not be making a fast decision and that they're not in a hurry, so let's look at the possible contenders.

Justin Langer
At the top of the list, and the most likely choice is Justin Langer. He played for the Australian men's cricket team between 1991 and 2000 before taking a break until 2006 and continuing until 2009 at which time he retired from playing. Since his retirement from playing he has coached the Perth Scorchers and was an assistant coach for Cricket Australia in 2009. Outside of cricket he is Catholic and a Liberal Party member. With his coaching experience he could be the right choice however he is 47 and whoever becomes the next coach needs to be in it for a long time, especially with the World Cup coming in 2019.

Ricky Ponting
A close contender, Ricky Ponting is a former Australian cricket captain and has played cricket for 26 years, since he was 17 years old. Since retiring from cricket in 2012 he has acted as the interim coach for the T20I series in South Africa in 2016/17. He also coached the Mumbai Indians in the IPL from 2014 to 2016 and has coached the Delhi Daredevils since January of this year. He has a young family and whether he would want to stop coaching the Delhi Daredevils after such a short time in favour of coaching Australia remains to be seen however he is one of the favourites for the role. He isn't a sledger and appers to be an all round nice guy.

Mike Hesson
Cricket Australia may choose to look internationally to fill the void left by outgoing coach Darren Lehmann. He has previously coached Kenya, Otago and Argentina so he has vast experience. Currently he coaches the NZ Cricket team and has been contracted until after the next Cricket World Cup so he may not want to break that contract, however if Cricket Australia offered him the right deal it's certainly a possibility. The only issue is that Cricket Australia may be short on funds given the loss of large sponsors in the last week.

Shane Warne
He is an outsider however he has previously experessed interest in coaching the Australian men's cricket team. He has said it would depend on timing. The problems with Shane Warne are that he is not without controversy himself. He was vice captain from 1999 until 2000 when he was sacked after indiscretions in his personal life. He is known as a womanizer and has had other problems. In 2003 he was banned from playing cricket for 12 months after being accused of taking a banned substance. He denied the allegations and was eventually allowed back in the team in 2004 and he played until 2006. Since then he has held commentary roles and has coached the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League. Over the last week he has spoken out in defence of the suspended players and has said the penalty is way too harsh. He is a respected commentator however questions remain over whether or not he would be the right person for the coaching job given his indiscretions and lenient stance on the ball tampering incident.

Michael Clarke
Former captain, Michael Clarke who showed leadership after the untimely death of Phillip Hughes  and brought the Cricket World Cup home in 2015 could become the coach. At 36 he is young, and with his vast experience in Australian cricket, and youth on his side he could be what Cricket Australia needs. Clarke has a clean record, isn't into sledging and is generally an all round nice guy. He wants Cricket Australia to recover from the ball tampering and genuinely cares about all of the players in the game. Last Sunday he expressed interest in the captaincy which, in the end went to Tasmanian wicket keeper Tim Paine. Clarke has made several comments in the media which have shown leadership and has indicated that he would not tolerate cheating and would be firm but fair and wouldn't tolerate cheating at all.

Given Cricket Australia needs to rebuild it's reputation, outsider Michael Clarke may be able to fill the role. It's not known if he wants to give up his media commentating roles and how he would cope with the role given he has a young daughter. That said, many of the families travel with cricketers now and so this shouldn't be an issue.

If I was on the selection panel, I would be torn between Warne, Clarke and Ponting, however I would probably have to choose Clarke because of the leadership he's shown over the last few years and he brought home the Cricket World Cup in 2015. He's young enough to be a long term coach and given he's a nice guy he may be the breath of fresh air that Cricket Australia needs.