Further details surrounding Justin Langer's decision to resign from his role as coach of the Australian cricket team have emerged, with Cricket Australia having offered a short-term extension to Langer as part of a "process of transition".
Langer's departure was confirmed on Saturday, with his assistant Andrew McDonald stepping into the senior coaching duties on an interim basis.
A split between the Australian cricket team, Cricket Australia and Langer ignited widespread backlash of CA CEO Nick Hockley and Australian captain Pat Cummins, who failed to support Langer in recent months.
In a press conference held shortly after Langer's resignation, Hockley revealed that a six-month contract extension was tabled to the now ex-Australian coach, with CA looking to begin a new era later this year.
"We are disappointed that Justin decided not to accept this extension and instead resigned effective immediately but we understand and respect his decision," Hockley said at a press conference on Saturday afternoon.
"These decisions are never easy.
"Many people will be disappointed by the decision to only offer Justin a short-term contract.
"The decision to start a process of transition is what we believe is in the best interests of the men's team for unity and future success."
The end of Langer's tenure as senior coach comes after four years at the helm, with the past several months both met with success and overlying doubt in regards to his position.
Despite claiming the T20 World Cup title and a 4-0 Ashes series win, speculation was a constant surrounding across Langer's final months in charge.
Hockley revealed that critical discussions took place midway through 2021, where friction between CA and their men's senior coach appeared.
"In the middle of (last) year we did have some challenging conversations, and some issues," Hockley added.
"It was well documented that we had some pretty robust conversations after coming back from Bangladesh, which was actually a really constructive process that led to role clarity.
"We recognised the team has evolved and the requirements and needs of the head coach have also evolved."
The Australian cricket team will make their first appearance without Langer as coach since the sandpaper saga of 2017, when they host Sri Lanka later this month as part of a five-match white-ball series on home soil.
McDonald will lead Australia through the series, with an official call on Langer's successor likely to be made prior to Australia's tour of Pakistan in March.
The concept of splitting the head coaching role across multiple formats has been flagged in the wake of Langer's exit, however Hockley remains insistent on keeping a singular head coach at the top
"As for splitting the roles, I think it remains our intention to keep an overarching head coach role," he said.
"I think going forward, we have such an exciting and important period of cricket. We have seven Test series, three on the subcontinent, two World Cups, one at home over the next 18 months.
"The current plan is to look to a point of [a] permanent successor to Justin, but we will continue to take a very project-focused approach to each of the series. Because it has worked so well over the course of the summer."
