Who is the most impressive Test captain of the Century?

Cast Your Vote!

Who is/are the stand out captain/s of this era?

Poll ended at Tue Nov 22, 2016 8:35 pm

Graeme Smith
1
4%
Ricky Ponting
2
8%
MS Dhoni
0
No votes
Stephen Fleming
4
17%
Alastair Cook
0
No votes
Michael Vaughan
2
8%
Andrew Strauss
0
No votes
Michael Clarke
0
No votes
Steve Waugh
4
17%
Sourav Ganguly
2
8%
Misbah-ul-Haq
2
8%
Brendan McCullum
3
13%
Virat Kohli
0
No votes
Mahela Jayawardene
1
4%
Nasser Hussain
3
13%
 
Total votes : 24

Re: Who is the most impressive Test captain of the Century?

Postby sussexpob » Tue Nov 22, 2016 2:30 pm

Interesting comments on Vaughan. I think I can never get away from the fact that Vaughan had to sacrifice himself as England's best batter to become captain, something that is a shame considering his endlessly classy talent. But at the time when England's main opponents were South Africa and Australia, I dont think he made much of an impact in big series with the bat(the onyl 100 of memory was in the drawn test at OT in 2005). His poor average as captain is propped up by easy runs vs the Windies and some scores vs Bangladesh. I dont think he really played against India as his fitness issues took over with those tours.

In fairness though, much of the work of a combination of people lead to Vaughan's success. I think anyone post-Atherton as captain left their mark on the team in a positive way, and that positive work came to a head around 2005. Alec Stewart's team were 80 odds runs away from a draw in Australia, a winter after they had magnificantly beat South Africa at home (which I still put down as England's best series win in my lifetime). Nasser had excellent Asian wins. Vaughan will have 2005. Fletcher is an almost constant presence in England's improvement.

In hindsight, it seems ridiculous how Atherton was captain of England for so long. He seemed to sum up England at this time

Vaughan did get England to believe they could win. The way the team stood up in 2005 took a mammoth effort.
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Re: Who is the most impressive Test captain of the Century?

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Tue Nov 22, 2016 2:41 pm

Surprised only I have voted for MPV.

Also voted for Misbah, who turned around the longterm toxic reputation of Pakistan cricket, to the point that last summer he captained one of the most popular touring parties to the UK, while also leading them, in exile, and against any reasonable expectation, up to being the world's top side.

And Brendan McCullum, who also captained NZ through a rare golden period which took them off the foot of the World rankings and up to number four, playing unusually attacking cricket. His style of the game might be called McCullumism, an alliance of off the wall innovative attacking tactics, good sportsmanship and a respect for the game, the umpires and the opposition. He scores unusually high on legacy for this reason.


Near misses- Ganguly and Waugh.
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Re: Who is the most impressive Test captain of the Century?

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Tue Nov 22, 2016 2:51 pm

Vaughan did immediately become a worse batter on becoming captain. But his knee was getting worse too from then. It's amazing that his genius was turned off immediately on taking over (average not as captain, 51, as captain, 41.4), after a superb innings against SA in 2003, 156 in Birmingham under Hussain. In the other four Tests as skipper, he made 140 runs. He was never the same again. That must count against him as a captain.
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Re: Who is the most impressive Test captain of the Century?

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Tue Nov 22, 2016 2:58 pm

Arthur Crabtree wrote:Surprised only I have voted for MPV.

Also voted for Misbah, who turned around the longterm toxic reputation of Pakistan cricket, to the point that last summer he captained one of the most popular touring parties to the UK, while also leading them, in exile, and against any reasonable expectation, up to being the world's top side.

And Brendan McCullum, who also captained NZ through a rare golden period which took them off the foot of the World rankings and up to number four, playing unusually attacking cricket. His style of the game might be called McCullumism, an alliance of off the wall innovative attacking tactics, good sportsmanship and a respect for the game, the umpires and the opposition. He scores unusually high on legacy for this reason.


Near misses- Ganguly and Waugh.


Probably, apart from Brendan, only Steve Waugh left behind a way of playing the game as his legacy.
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Re: Who is the most impressive Test captain of the Century?

Postby Aidan11 » Tue Nov 22, 2016 3:36 pm

I can't choose at present. Going to have to have a think about it.
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Re: Who is the most impressive Test captain of the Century?

Postby Aidan11 » Tue Nov 22, 2016 3:37 pm

Some tough competition in that list.
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Re: Who is the most impressive Test captain of the Century?

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Tue Nov 22, 2016 3:57 pm

Open until 19.30.

Two votes have disappeared. I bumped this up in the hope I might get a few more.
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Re: Who is the most impressive Test captain of the Century?

Postby Gingerfinch » Tue Nov 22, 2016 4:03 pm

I've added Hussain, and S Waugh to Punter.
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Re: Who is the most impressive Test captain of the Century?

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Tue Nov 22, 2016 4:11 pm

Had twenty-one earlier. Down to nineteen. Fleming and Mis had three each.
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Re: Who is the most impressive Test captain of the Century?

Postby Aidan11 » Tue Nov 22, 2016 4:16 pm

Went for Waugh & Fleming.


Always admired the way Fleming steered the NZ ship during his tenure.


Waugh was a no-brainer for me. Tough-talking no-nonsense skipper in the Allan Border mould.
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Re: Who is the most impressive Test captain of the Century?

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Tue Nov 22, 2016 4:19 pm

We have a leader. I didn't think Tugga would be a popular choice.
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Re: Who is the most impressive Test captain of the Century?

Postby Dr Cricket » Tue Nov 22, 2016 4:31 pm

Think the result prove what I thought would happen no clear winner with so many captain getting picked.
Very hard to pick captain and no right or wrong reason either.
be nice if the polls got 1st, 2nd or 3rd choice.
so the result can be analysed.
Suspect Waugh will come out on top though.

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Re: Who is the most impressive Test captain of the Century?

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Tue Nov 22, 2016 4:34 pm

All square again...
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Re: Who is the most impressive Test captain of the Century?

Postby Aidan11 » Tue Nov 22, 2016 4:41 pm

A similar vote from the last century could be challenging.
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Re: Who is the most impressive Test captain of the Century?

Postby Making_Splinters » Tue Nov 22, 2016 7:24 pm

Rating a captain is tough as it's largely the results that matter. That said, you can be the most innovative captain and get the most out of your players, but if you have a poor side then your record overall isn't going to be great. Obviously the converse is true, having a group of senior bowlers who can largely set their own fields makes the captain essentially only responsible for bowling changes

And then what about situations like we have at the minute in the England side where individual players can decide where they want to go and field?

The vast majority of decisions these days are made before the players even step on the field anyway: Who bowls when, how many overs, Plan A, B and C for a specific batsman, so there isn't exactly much Captaincy that even goes on anymore.
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