Justin Langer clarifies his stance on Ashes return

Updated on: 27 July,2009 08:59 AM IST |
Agencies |

Even before Ricky Ponting could get on the phone and contact Justin Langer, the retired Australian opener has made his stance clear.

Even before Ricky Ponting could get on the phone and contact Justin Langer, the retired Australian opener has made his stance clear.

On Saturday, Langer had said that he would give anything to play Thursday's third Ashes Test against England when a Somerset teammate asked him what it would take for him to play the third Test if his country needed his services.

But the left-hander, yesterday, said that the statement was supposed to be nothing but a fantasy and he never really thought of playing for Australia again.

All for nothing
"One of the boys in the Somerset changing room asked me, 'If they asked you to play tomorrow, how much would it take?' and I said I would play the third Test for Australia next week for nothing," Langer told a reporter from the Press Association after breaking Sir Donald Bradman's 72-year-old record to become Australia's most prolific run-scorer in first-class cricket.

Not interested
"I'm certainly not interested in making a Test comeback," Langer said last night on the Cricket Australia website. That was a bit of a tongue-in-cheek conversation between myself and Marcus Trescothick in the change rooms about what it would take for him to play next week with (Kevin) Pietersen injured," Langer said.

"The point I was making was as a kid in the backyard all you want to do is play in an Ashes Test. I mean who wouldn't? It's the greatest thing in the world. But that was it, it was just a tongue-in-cheek comment."