The ‘fallout’ between coach Justin Langer and the players has been “magnified,” according to Australian cricketer Joe Burns, who also said that there are always “small problems” in teams that can be “spoken about and rectified.”

When Langer was quarantined in a hotel in Adelaide with the Australian squad, he was caught in the thick of a storm. Tensions between Langer and the cricketers erupted, and Cricket Australia (CA) had to put out a lot of fires, hosting an emergency Zoom meeting in August with CA chairman Earl Eddings, CEO Hockley, Test captain Tim Paine, limited-overs captain Aaron Finch, and Pat Cummins.

Langer came under intense scrutiny after returning from Australia’s 4-1 T20I series losses to West Indies and Bangladesh. There were reports of discontent between him and the players apart from an alleged heated argument with a Cricket Australia (CA) staffer in Dhaka.

But opener Burns backed Langer amid the backdrop of the criticism he faced in the build-up to the ICC T20 World Cup and Ashes series, beginning December 8 at the Gabba.

“In that fishbowl, everything is magnified,” Burns said on SEN WA on Monday. “There’d be little problems like there is in every team, you’d talk about it and it gets fixed but in the Aussie team, it always blows up and appears to be 10 times worse in the public than in reality.

“I love (Justin Langer) and him as a coach, I love the passion he’s brought to the team. You make no apologies about wanting to win games for your country, if that comes across in a different way then you can’t control,” said the 32-year-old Burns, who has played 23 Tests, scoring more than 1400 runs.

“Everyone in the setup knows what the ultimate goal is and what we’re trying to achieve, if you stand by those (values) you can’t go wrong and I believe the team has done that. It’s the by-product when you invite the cameras in and do a documentary, it’s great to get that access but people run with it and make their own conclusions around different issues from there,” added Burns.

On November 11, Australia will face Pakistan in the semifinals of the ICC T20 World Cup in Dubai, with the winner facing either New Zealand or England in the final.

(With IANS inputs)