How is Allan Border remembered as a captain?

[The Sean]

As with many Australian kids of a certain generation (older now than I’d like to admit), I grew up idolising AB and so there’ll always be an element of hero-worship for me with him. I thought he was a great captain, and more than that he was absolutely the captain that Australia needed at that (dark) point in its cricketing history.

He never wanted the job. We know that because he made it clear from the start, and it took him a long time to become even remotely comfortable with it (you could argue that he never fully did). He wasn’t a genius tactician – and by that I don’t mean he was clueless or naïve tactically, not at all, just that it wasn’t at the top of his list of strengths. In the early days too you could see there was a real frustration that his own (magnificent) performances were more often than not for nothing because the rest of the team usually folded around him which, combined with his reluctance to be doing the job in the first place, had a real impact on his enjoyment of the game for a long time. A lesser man would have just thought “**** this, I’ve got better things to do” and walked – and no one would have blamed him for it.

But he didn’t. He did something about it, and what he did was the greatest legacy of his captaincy – mentality. He changed the entire mentality of Australian cricket at that time. In short, he’d just absolutely had enough of being a loser, of being surrounded by losers, of being part of a team that expected to lose and were happy when they did pull off the occasional win. Dean Jones once told a story of the Aussie dressing room in Sydney after Australia had won the dead rubber fifth Test of the 86/87 Ashes – Deano had made 184 not out, a couple of the bowlers had got amongst the wickets, and they were generally whooping it up in celebration and couldn’t work out why Border wasn’t joining it. AB’s response was along the lines of “Why are you ****ing celebrating? We lost the Ashes.” Jones said that was a lightbulb moment for him too, to stop being satisfied with failure.

We saw this change in mentality sometimes manifest itself in less-than-amiable ways – Border’s “captain grumpy” persona was well justified, summed up by the famous incident in 1989 when David Gower jovially asked his opposite number on a very hot day if he could get a drink while batting to rehydrate, to which AB replied “no, you can ****ing wait for drinks like the rest of us.” Gower had always considered Border a mate and wasn’t expecting such hostility, but again in AB this was a man who was simply saying that enough is enough – no more Mr Nice Guy.

The other thing that went to the next level while Border was skipper (and coach Bob Simpson deserves plenty of credit for this) was fitness. The Australian team in the second half of the 1980s and into the 1990s had a big change in culture around dedication to fitness and looking after themselves, which showed hugely as well in in their on-field performance.

Border wasn’t perfect, as a captain or as a bloke, and in a way it’s a shame that by the time Australia had a team worthy of him and on the verge of dominating world cricket he was at the end of his career and on the way out. But to me he will always be the chief architect of that dominance – Taylor, Waugh, Ponting and their all-conquering teams were very much living in the house that AB built.

OK.

(Just getting in first)

 

[karan_fromthestands]

lol Misbah isn't fit to carry Border's soiled jockstrap between his teeth ffs. No one is.

You kids.

ok

 

[trundler]

Misbah has more than zero match winning tons.

 

[Gob]

Up there with Tim paine

 

[Dazinho]

As with many Australian kids of a certain generation (older now than I’d like to admit), I grew up idolising AB and so there’ll always be an element of hero-worship for me with him. I thought he was a great captain, and more than that he was absolutely the captain that Australia needed at that (dark) point in its cricketing history.

He never wanted the job. We know that because he made it clear from the start, and it took him a long time to become even remotely comfortable with it (you could argue that he never fully did). He wasn’t a genius tactician – and by that I don’t mean he was clueless or naïve tactically, not at all, just that it wasn’t at the top of his list of strengths. In the early days too you could see there was a real frustration that his own (magnificent) performances were more often than not for nothing because the rest of the team usually folded around him which, combined with his reluctance to be doing the job in the first place, had a real impact on his enjoyment of the game for a long time. A lesser man would have just thought “**** this, I’ve got better things to do” and walked – and no one would have blamed him for it.

But he didn’t. He did something about it, and what he did was the greatest legacy of his captaincy – mentality. He changed the entire mentality of Australian cricket at that time. In short, he’d just absolutely had enough of being a loser, of being surrounded by losers, of being part of a team that expected to lose and were happy when they did pull off the occasional win. Dean Jones once told a story of the Aussie dressing room in Sydney after Australia had won the dead rubber fifth Test of the 86/87 Ashes – Deano had made 184 not out, a couple of the bowlers had got amongst the wickets, and they were generally whooping it up in celebration and couldn’t work out why Border wasn’t joining it. AB’s response was along the lines of “Why are you ****ing celebrating? We lost the Ashes.” Jones said that was a lightbulb moment for him too, to stop being satisfied with failure.

We saw this change in mentality sometimes manifest itself in less-than-amiable ways – Border’s “captain grumpy” persona was well justified, summed up by the famous incident in 1989 when David Gower jovially asked his opposite number on a very hot day if he could get a drink while batting to rehydrate, to which AB replied “no, you can ****ing wait for drinks like the rest of us.” Gower had always considered Border a mate and wasn’t expecting such hostility, but again in AB this was a man who was simply saying that enough is enough – no more Mr Nice Guy.

The other thing that went to the next level while Border was skipper (and coach Bob Simpson deserves plenty of credit for this) was fitness. The Australian team in the second half of the 1980s and into the 1990s had a big change in culture around dedication to fitness and looking after themselves, which showed hugely as well in in their on-field performance.

Border wasn’t perfect, as a captain or as a bloke, and in a way it’s a shame that by the time Australia had a team worthy of him and on the verge of dominating world cricket he was at the end of his career and on the way out. But to me he will always be the chief architect of that dominance – Taylor, Waugh, Ponting and their all-conquering teams were very much living in the house that AB built.

Wanted to thank everyone who replied, but this was as good a post as any,.

The captaincy seemed to change AB as a man and not necessarily for the better, but he probably realised that 'nice' and instilling the right mentality amongst his charges weren't compatible.

I do think the sledging went too far when watching the 1993 Ashes, but apparently the reason for that was AB being annoyed at how easily England were rolling over. A few didn't, but enough did for me to see his point.

Many thanks again...

 

[HookShot]

The turning point for Australian cricket was when Allan Border’s team came from no where to win the 1987 World Cup.

Sure Allan Border played a big part in that victory but it was Bob Simpson’s influence as Australia’s new coach that made the difference because he drilled the players like a Sargent Major to become the most disciplined, hard-working team in the World.

Australia’s successes in the late 80s were very much due to the Border-Simpson partnership, and the players willingness to go along with the new tough coaching regime; especially the young Steve Waugh.

How misfit Aussies upstaged cricket's best to win the 1987 World Cup

Even the players didn't think they stood a chance. But with a seasoned captain and an astute coach, Australia claimed its inaugural World Cup in 1987 while overcoming everything from rogue cows to a booze ban.

www.abc.net.au

 

[Burgey]

All these ***** trying to somehow downplay TOTAB’s influence on returning Australia to its rightful place of cricketing dominance should be on the #nextplanehome

 

[Burgey]

People always bung on about how tough Steve Waugh was a cricketer. FMD TOTAB taught him everything about being a hard ****. Without Border there is no Waugh.

 

[Shady Slim]

Without Border there is no Waugh.

putin on the blower to zelensky, not knowing what a homophone is

 

[HookShot]

People always bung on about how tough Steve Waugh was a cricketer. FMD TOTAB taught him everything about being a hard ****. Without Border there is no Waugh.

Without Border and Simo there is no Waugh.

“The West Indies innings, I guess was the making of me as a player and probably goes back to Bob Simpson,” Waugh said. “He doesn’t get a lot of credit. After the first couple of Tests, he sat our group of batsmen down and he said ‘This is not good enough. Somewhere, one of you guys has to go and get a big hundred, and we said ‘Well, hang on look, why don’t you go and try this, those four quicks, and we are doing our best’.

“But I walked away from that meeting, I was on a beach in Antigua or Barbados or somewhere, and I thought, ‘Maybe there is something in what he is saying here. Are we tough enough? Can we break through and get that big score?’”

https://wisden.com/stories/bob-simpson-doesnt-get-credit-story-behind-steve-waughs-200-v-west-indies

 

[Burgey]

No no no. The captain calls the shots on the park mate. Unless it's Hansie at the 99 WC with the headphones in, one ear with Woolmer on the line, the other with a bookie. By 95 Waugh was already well established in the Aus side and had come of age.

 

[jcas0167]

A.B. took over a side in disarray. Previous captain, Kim Hughes, lacked the support of senior players and famously resigned in tears. Border reluctantly took over the captaincy but his first touring squad was decimated when 7 players withdraw to participate in a rebel tour of S.A.
He turned the fortunes of the team around, leading by example, refusing to take any nonsense from players who might put themselves ahead of the team and earning the respect of players and supporters alike.
He is one of the finest captains Australia has had.

Classic clip.

1.6M views · 6.3K reactions | "ක්‍රිකට් නායකයෙක්" කියන්නෙ කාගෙවත් සුරතලෙක් නොවෙයි. අපි එහෙම කියන්නෙ අපි නායකයො දැකලා තියෙන නිසා. ඇලන් බෝඩර්, ඕස්ට්‍රේලියාවෙන් බිහිවූ අති විශිෂ්ට... | By Asanka Hadirampela | Facebook

"ක්‍රිකට් නායකයෙක්" කියන්නෙ කාගෙවත් සුරතලෙක් නොවෙයි. අපි එහෙම කියන්නෙ අපි නායකයො දැකලා තියෙන නිසා. ඇලන් බෝඩර්, ඕස්ට්‍රේලියාවෙන් බිහිවූ අති විශිෂ්ට...

www.facebook.com

 

[GIMH]

Never heard of him

 

[Adders]

All I've learnt from this thread is that AB is responsible for turning Australian cricketers into the ***** we've seen the last 30 odd years........so is that his legacy?

 

[Victor Ian]

Let's not believe the revisionist idea that in 89 England were expected to lose. It was supposed to be another thumping of Australia but this was a turning point where Borders team started to get the results of Borders patience (without accepting their crap) and insistance they were going to do everything they could to win. No more wilting under pressure. Waugh finally came good. Taylor starred, and importantly the team put runs on the board that let our bowlers start to attack again (plus Warnie, of course).
Taylor inherited Borders work. Waugh implemented Borders work with better resources. Those too young to know have no idea how long Border captained Australia. It was from 84 until the mid 2000s. And he took a team with this guy* as one of our premier batsman and bested by everyone and turned it into a team that worked harder than all to be bested by none.

*Sorry Greg. You were my favourite player after Border at the time. A cult hero, but indicative of our standards at the time.

 

[Coronis]

All I've learnt from this thread is that AB is responsible for turning Australian cricketers into the ****s we've seen the last 30 odd years........so is that his legacy?

Worked better than whatever the English got turned into

 

[Fuller Pilch]

All I've learnt from this thread is that AB is responsible for turning Australian cricketers into the ****s we've seen the last 30 odd years........so is that his legacy?

Nah, that's more due to convict genes than Allan Border.

 

[Burgey]

All I've learnt from this thread is that AB is responsible for turning Australian cricketers into the ****s we've seen the last 30 odd years........so is that his legacy?

Yeah. It's great isn't it? Not just shrugging your shoulders and settling for a loss without giving a ****.

TOTAB is the world's greatest post-war cricketer. No one else holds a candle to him. The number of so-called greats who crumbled like a SAO in a blender when they were put under the blow torch of having to be their side's best player and captain is legion. But not TOTAB, who led Aus out of a rancid SL-in-perpetuity like position in world cricket from 1984 and on the road back to our rightful place of dominance.

Imran was also very good, but he used to drop in and out of the Pakistan set up and handed over to Javed from time to time then came back when it suited him and they'd found a few good 'uns like Wasim and Waqar. Doesn't belong in the argument either, on reflection.

No one does.

This is a hill I will die on.

 

[GIMH]

Yeah. It's great isn't it? Not just shrugging your shoulders and settling for a loss without giving a ****.

TOTAB is the world's greatest post-war cricketer. No one else holds a candle to him. The number of so-called greats who crumbled like a SAO in a blender when they were put under the blow torch of having to be their side's best player and captain is legion. But not TOTAB, who led Aus out of a rancid SL-in-perpetuity like position in world cricket from 1984 and on the road back to our rightful place of dominance.

Imran was also very good, but he used to drop in and out of the Pakistan set up and handed over to Javed from time to time then came back when it suited him and they'd found a few good 'uns like Wasim and Waqar. Doesn't belong in the argument either, on reflection.

No one does.

This is a hill I will die on.

I wonder what he makes of the weakling claims of you lot celebrating drawn series over here

 

[Victor Ian]

I wonder what he makes of the weakling claims of you lot celebrating drawn series over here

Probably the same scorn he'd poor on your lot for celebrating a drawn series at home. And rightfully too for both teams.