Born: Perth WA
21 November 1970
Born and bred a proud Western Australian, Langer started his cricketing life at Scarborough Cricket Club, going on to make his First-Class debut for Western Australia in December 1991.
Langer played 117 First-Class matches for WA, and ended his career as the highest run-scorer in the State’s history. During his 17-year state career he played in two Sheffield Shield winning teams, captained a One-Day Cup win and became the first Western Australian to play 100 Tests for his country.
A career built on fighting above his weight, his first test came against the mighty West Indies at the Adelaide Oval in 1993. He spent the first years of his career at the crucial No.3 position, including famously partnering with Adam Gilchrist to chase down 369 to beat Pakistan in Hobart in 1999.
Langer moved to the top of the order in 2001, where he shared in Australia’s most successful opening partnership in Test cricket with Matthew Hayden. The pair compiled 6,081 runs together from 122 Test innings at an average of 51.53, including 14 century stands.
Few have worn the baggy green Australian cap with such pride and the left-hander ended his distinguished Test career of 105 matches with 7696 runs at an average of 45.27, including 23 hundreds and 30 fifties.
Langer finished his glittering career as the greatest first class run scorer in Australian cricket history, having amassed 28,382 runs at 50.23, exceeding the previous record of Sir Donald Bradman’s 28,067 runs. His tally of 86 first-class centuries placed him second only to Bradman (117) on the Australian list.
Following a distinguished playing career, Langer was appointed head coach of WA and the Perth Scorchers in 2012, with six highly successful seasons at the helm. The Scorchers won three Big Bash League titles, and WA claimed another One-Day Cup victory.
Following his success at state level, Langer became coach of the Australian men’s cricket team in May 2018, and led them to the Men’s ICC 2021 T20 World Cup title and retaining the Ashes in 2019 and 2021-2022.