Cricket-Match-Special ... A forum for discussion

Alastair Cook will become the captain to have led England the most times, in the first Test against India tomorrow. And he has a decent record, though as well as the plaudits, he has picked up detractors along the way.

But in the context of world cricket, who has been the best captain, going back to 2000?

So, considering the whole job. People management, onfield tactics, the progression of the team, inspiration, public image/relations, role in the XI, legacy and perhaps ability to respond to any special circumstances that may arise. I'm just including international Test cricket here, though any thoughts are welcome.

Pick out up to three names. Poll runs for two weeks. Votes can be changed.

Some stats. Runs scored this century, as captain. Almost all of them are batters.

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine ... pe=batting

And games won as captain since 2000. There's probably a way of doing this better, but I can't find it.

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine ... pe=batting

Went for Jayawardene very underrated captain, best captain I saw, think he preferred being captain without actually being captain and hated the sri lankan political issues.
Fleming and my 3rd choice would have been dravid but like Jaywardene he was underrated and didn't like the job but was very good captain, so went with Smith.

Think Captaincy is a hard thing to measure since I find the best ones are usually the ones not doing the role for long and very hard to quantify how good the field settings or bowling changes have been.
in recent times, Ie during the last 12-18 months Faf Du plesis and Kohli are probably the stand out captains at the moment.

Faf not even the full time captain and he already a top class captain.

Find the likes of B mac, Clarke, Smith overrated really, they generally not that creative or manage the bowling attack much.
BMAC was good when he started but started getting too funky and over attacking for the sake of it and most times it looked like he had no plan but just to bowl the best bowlers and set crazy attacking fields.

I think every captain to have led for more than 32 Tests this century is included, with Brendan and Virat the wild cards. I think giving the wildcards led to Inzi and Jayasuriya missing out. Surprised Sanga captained in so few games.

I went for Vaughan, McCullum and Misbah. I'll look at why later on.

Ganguly, Waugh and Smith have as good a case though.

I always liked Punter as skipper. He wasn't the best, or the the most civilised but he batted for his team, and would do almost anything to win. He also won the world cup twice as skipper.

Arthur Crabtree wrote:So, considering the whole job. People management, onfield tactics, the progression of the team, inspiration, public image/relations, role in the XI, legacy and perhaps ability to respond to any special circumstances that may arise.

Should add, longevity.

Ponting

He won the ODI world cups, team was the best in Test ranking as well under him.

His declarations were more aggressive, his field placement were really nice.

The Fleming captaincy thing is a popular myth I dont understand. Put NZ away on a tough pitch to bowl on, and he showed very little creativity. His reputation is built on a number of home wins against very poor opposition. In 1999/2000 they beat the Windies (not long after the blockbuster series at home to Aussies that Windies had) but the tour was the start of Windies contracting issues, and the whole background of the tour was played with the Windies in off the pitch disarray (and Ambrose didnt tour I believe, and their batting line up had a lot of rubbish in it filling gaps). Id probably hazard a guess Zimbabwe and BD, who NZ hosted a lot, account for a large proportion of Fleming's already pretty low win ratio. Away from home he had one series (vs arguably Englands worst ever test team in the late 90s) he did well in.

At home Fleming's NZ relied on green tinged wickets to be teams not used to the conditions.

I think you cant really argue over Steve Waugh. The only real blemishes he had was drawing in a series where the best bowler and batsman of my lifetime had career defining series.... and losing to India's best side ever on pitches designed to be as hostile and home favouring as can be... and he didnt get hammered like Clarke has, or Ponting has.

Waugh made Australia a ruthless winning machine, was astute at keeping together a team that seemingly had its differences, batted for his team like his life depended on it, and in terms of results I guess he must be up there all time in how many wins to games they have?

After that, Ganguly should be given credit for how he turned India from an underachieving side, and made face up to the fact that they could beat anyone, and away from home too. There is a lot of Ganguly's work and confidence in display in India now, and Dhoni should thank him for inhereting a situation that previously would have been unthought of in the 90s.

The rest have never displayed the lasting capabilities that makes a great captain.

Waugh and Ganguly score the highest on 'legacy' I think. With McCullum. Though I don't think Waugh's impact was a positive one, on the field, or for the game.

The biggest legacy in SA cricket would be the emergence of a multiracial team, and I'm not sure Smith was a factor in that.

Arthur Crabtree wrote:Waugh and Ganguly score the highest on 'legacy' I think. With McCullum. Though I don't think Waugh's impact was a positive one, on the field, or for the game.

The biggest legacy in SA cricket would be the emergence of a multiracial team, and I'm not sure Smith was a factor in that.

Smith is a failure for me based solely on the fact that through his era, he had ridiculous talent at his disposal and never done anything in major ICC tournaments, nor ever really had a period of test dominance that they should have achieved.

Id disagree about Waugh's impact, his teams were for their day maybe quite combatative, but nothing in comparison to now..... and more than anything, it was Waugh's batsman in the early 2000's who became more aggressive, his bowlers bowled to get you out. They were a dynamic and exciting side to watch on the field. Stroke making batsman, heart, grit, wicket taking bowlers, excellent fielders......

Id stay up to watch Waugh's Aussie side play, I wouldnt to watch Clarkes.

Mahela for me

cricketfan90 wrote:Mahela for me

Did he ever win a test series away against anyone but BD?