5 Greatest Captains Ever

[Sanz]

1. Alan Border
2. Imran Khan
3. Arjuna Ranatunga
4. Mark Taylor
5. Hansie Cronje

This is basically from mid/late 80s. I dont know enough to make an alltime list.

 

[Smudge]

Martin Crowe was better than Fleming IMO, just didn't have the same resources avaliable to him...

Are you trying to tell me De Groen isn't Bond's equal?

 

[PakPowered]

I am surprised no one mentioned Pataudi Jr.

Are you talking about Nawab of Pataudi?? I don't think many would have seen him in action.

My 5 would be,

1Imran
2Cronje
3Chappel
4Taylor
5Ganguly.

 

[aussie]

for a good captain is one who can inspire his side. The top 5 for me since i've bee watching from 97 to 2006 are:

1. Taylor
2. S.Waugh
3. Fleming
4. Cronje
5. Vaughan

But i suppose in History the top 5 could be:

1. Clive Llyod
2. Allan Border
3. Imran Khan
4. Frank Worrell
5. Donald Bradman

 

[archie mac]

I am surprised no one mentioned Pataudi Jr.

I considered Tiger, maybe if I chose an all time Indian list? Forgive the spelling

Ganguly
Pataudi
Gavaskar
Aza (could not get the spelling right)
Amarnath

 

[marc71178]

Argh.



Wait, to try and cover up my error I may just claim that 5 was supposed to be Ponting anyway.

Which would make me seem less stupid?

LOL - good call.

Say it was Matthew Fleming in that case, he must have done some in that bizarre period when he somehow made the England team

 

[oz_fan]

All Time
1. Clive Lloyd
2. Imran Khan
3. Don Bradman
4. Frank Worrell
5. Steve Waugh

 

[SA]

From what I've seen:

Imran Khan
Steve Waugh
Hansie Cronje
Saurav Ganguly
Stephen Fleming

 

[JASON]

1 Clive LLoyd
2 Alan Border
3 Arjuna Ranatunga
4 Steve Waugh
5 Douglas Jardine

To explain my selection, LLoyd lead the greatest Team ever in Test Cricket history in terms of the quality of players and their absolute invincibility against oppositions in variety of conditions (home or away). He was himself a great batsman and occasional bowler and he made it into Test cricket's most successful Team.
He also lead them to 2 World Cup wins in the first 2 World Cups.

Alan Border built an Australian Team after it had been run over by Kerry Packer's World series Cricket and from the ruins he built it over time into a Successful Team from which his succesors have progressed and benefitted from his great stewardship. This would not have been possible or forseeable when AB took over the Team. He also lead Australia to its First World Cup win in 1987.

Arjuna is much maligned for his confrontational nature, but for a country which came into Test Cricket and was struggling through its early years in Test Cricket, Arjuna was a strong leader who moulded it with his strong leadership skills and his positive influence on players in his wings. If not for his strong leadership and astute captaincy , the 66-1 outsider would have had no show in winning the World Cup in 1996. His succesors have helped the Team develop further, but have benefitted from the overwhelming contribution by Arjuna to Sri Lankan Cricket.

Steve Waugh as a Captain lead from the front and the numerous occasions he saved his Team and turned around the fortunes of his team are well known.

Douglas Jardine was much maligned for devising the leg side theory after strategising with his leading bowlers Larwood, Voce, Bowes long before the Body line series of 32-33, as to the best way of tackling the then Aussie cricketing juggernaut lead by Sir Don Bradman, who otherwise would have run rampant . You may hate him for this but, it was legal and within the rules of cricket then and he lead his Team from the front. Unfortunately the English cricket establishment then failed to stand by their captain and he ended up being hounded and maligned and leaving cricket as a tarnished individual. A fate undeserved in my opinion.

 

[wpdavid]

AFAICS both Lloyd & Waugh come under the Thora Hird school of captaincy in so far as you could have put TH in charge of those sides and they'd have still won pretty much everything. Brearley is widely admired as an outstanding captain, but most of his wins were against very weak sides and he had the nous to retire before the series against WI. Cronje was very good, but they did bottle one or two key series, such as England in 1998 & Aus on an occasion or two.

You're really looking for someone who adds value to the sum of the parts at his disposal. Taylor fits the bill, as its easily forgotten that his great pace attack didn't emerge until a few years into his reign. Border, of course. Hussain for a while, although I think he lost it a bit towards the end. Vaughan has been great, apart from in Pakistan. Fleming, of course. Imran maybe - it would be interesting to look at the series he actually captained, as he missed a lot for various reasons.

Who led the very successful NZ side in the mid80's - Coney? Worth a mention, I reckon.

 

[Xuhaib]

From what i have seen.

1- Imran
2-Taylor
3-Border
4-Cronje
5-Hussain

 

[Richard]

In my opinion, a good captain has to lead from the front with his performances. Certainly tactical ability is a large part of captaincy, but the ability to bring a team together under you, and to perform yourself when most needed are very important as well. Brearley fails quite badly in the last category, so I don't think you could consider him for the top 5.

Of course he clearly must be expected to lead from the front when making his international debut at the age of 34.

 

[Richard]

for a good captain is one who can inspire his side. The top 5 for me since i've bee watching from 97 to 2006 are:

1. Taylor
2. S.Waugh
3. Fleming
4. Cronje
5. Vaughan

Waugh is clearly nowhere near as good a captain as many people of the last 8 years. Fleming, Ranatunga, Hussain, Cronje, Smith, Vaughan and Ganguly have all done more in my estimation.
Waugh simply had too easy a ride to be considered seriously. Aside from being captain of a load of victories, he has nothing to recommend him.

 

[Richard]

Who led the very successful NZ side in the mid80's - Coney? Worth a mention, I reckon.

John Wright, wasn't it?

 

[Richard]

Taylor fits the bill, as its easily forgotten that his great pace attack didn't emerge until a few years into his reign.

Well - he did still have Reiffel and a McGrath who was just beginning to come into his own, a young Fleming and an old McDermott.

 

[Smudge]

Who led the very successful NZ side in the mid80's - Coney? Worth a mention, I reckon.

Geoff Howarth took over the reins as captain in 1980 and led New Zealand through a golden period in our cricketing history. He badly lost form in about 1985 and was replaced by Coney, who captained through to 1987/88. Coney was replaced by Jeff Crowe on retirement.

 

[Armadillo]

Inzamam Ul Haq
Ian Botham
Sachin Tendulkar
Mark Butcher
Saeed Anwar

 

[Richard]

Inzamam isn't as bad he's made-out. Butcher has actually been an extremely successful captain.

 

[archie mac]

Waugh is clearly nowhere near as good a captain as many people of the last 8 years. Fleming, Ranatunga, Hussain, Cronje, Smith, Vaughan and Ganguly have all done more in my estimation.
Waugh simply had too easy a ride to be considered seriously. Aside from being captain of a load of victories, he has nothing to recommend him.

I find this a strange argument: Waugh can't be considered because he had such great players. If you put Brearley in charge of the Bangas he would have a poor record.

I thought Waugh took the Aussie side to another level, run rates soared under him, the Aust seemingly buried the dead rubber syndrome.

He also introduced a lot of little things that have helped the Aussies to be an even better team, such as:

All wearing their Baggy green caps of the first session of a Test.
Having past players present the debut player with his cap.
Having players talk to their peers on subjects from cricket history to cooking.
I am not sure but did they start showing the ball after a 5 wicket hall in his time as captain?

The only thing I thought Waugh lacked was a plan B if the all out attack didnot work.

 

[luckyeddie]

I know I'm only getting the benefit of Richard's wisdom second-hand at the moment, but didn't he say the other day that Vaughan had done nothing at all as a captain yet this is seemingly still enough to outshine Waugh?