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Who are your top 3 captains of all time?

Madplayer

Madplayer

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You have to rank them as well 1st, 2nd and 3rd as well. Consider all factora such as overall impact on the team's present and future, leadership skills, handling pressure situations, and obviously achievements in terms of results. It should be fun.

From the top of my mind some great captains that the world has seen are :

Clive lloyd (WI)
Allan Border (Aus)
Steve Waugh (Aus)
Imran Khan (Pak)
Saurav Ganguly (Ind)
Graeme Smith (SA)
MS Dhoni (Ind)
Mike Brearley (Eng)
Douglas Jardine (Eng)

Lets go.
 
Anyone picking Dhoni in the top 3 cricket captains of all-time has to be either a troll or unintelligent.
 
The top three would be Imran, Lloyd and Waugh. The order is down to personal preference.

the_outsider said:
And on what basis are you saying that?

You are one who seems to be trolling.
Click to expand...

The basis is the pathetic, gutless 8:0 humiliation. It is laughable that Dhoni is even mentioned here.
 
Madplayer said:
You have to rank them as well 1st, 2nd and 3rd as well. Consider all factora such as overall impact on the team's present and future, leadership skills, handling pressure situations, and obviously achievements in terms of results. It should be fun.

From the top of my mind some great captains that the world has seen are :

Clive lloyd (WI)
Allan Border (Aus)
Steve Waugh (Aus)
Imran Khan (Pak)
Saurav Ganguly (Ind)
Graeme Smith (SA)
MS Dhoni (Ind)
Mike Brearley (Eng)
Douglas Jardine (Eng)

Lets go.
Click to expand...

What is Imran doing in the list? Total 3 tests win outside Asia is not enough.
 
Dhoni is one of the greatest captains ever in ODIs but in tests, he wasn't quite upto mark. Ganguly and Kapil are easily India's best captains in test cricket but in LOs, Dhoni takes the shine over anyone of them.
 
Graeme Smith - Made captain when he was 6 test matches old and 22 yrs of age. Just imagine a 22 yrs old guy who has played some 15 first class matches in his life and who was trying to cement his berth in the SA team, now has to lead a disjointed and a devastated team. And where does it end? It ends after 108 test matches with 53 victories and series victories all over the globe. A series victory in England after 43 years, a first series victory in Australia, multiple drawn series against India in India, a series victory in Pakistan etc etc. An absolute legendary captain and one of the best match winning batsmen ever..

Clive Lloyd - Less said the more. After being humiliated on his first tour (5-1 loss to Australia) and then first home series when India chased 400+ in 4th inning, he discarded conventions and brought together a new concept of playing 4 attacking fast bowlers. Rest as they say is history. Captained 74 test matches, won 36 of them. Of these, 50 were away matches, where he won 23 times. Remarkable captain, who changed the culture of a team and left a legacy for lifetime.
 
Buffet said:
Clive Lloyd
Richie Benaud
Stephen Fleming
Click to expand...

Stephen fleming. Interesting choice. A very good captain. Do you rate him above Baz and Crowe (i know his test captaincy record is average but in ODIs was good) as a leader of men?
 
Madplayer said:
Stephen fleming. Interesting choice. A very good captain. Do you rate him above Baz and Crowe (i know his test captaincy record is average but in ODIs was good) as a leader of men?
Click to expand...

Baz may be slightly better as leader, but Fleming was a gun captain inside the field. Brilliant field placement and tactics. Crowe was good but not at the same level.
 
Jardine
Benaud
Lloyd

I would say Brearley but he wasn’t up to test standard as a batter. Also he retired before ten tests against WI, came back against AUS and looked like a genius.
 
Last edited:
I think, this list should be based on Test cricket, or other way I say my ranking is based on Test.

My top 3 are:

1. Richi Benaud - the best tactical genius game has ever seen. He was outstanding man manager, an outstanding cricketer whose stats doesn’t justify his capability. Averages on 23 with bat, but I can say those 23 were the most valuable ever for his team - he hardly ever let down his team under pressure even with bat. A charming character whose entire focus was to attack & get 20 wickets. He was the architect of most diversified Test attack ever - Lindwall, Miller, Davidson, Benaud, Johnson, O’Neil - and he knew how to use them.

2. Imran - the most dominant player as Captain. No player, not even Bradman raised his game to such level as leader. He was the greatest competitor in the game I have seen and he assambled a shambles into a war machine. Not the most tactical genius which he covered lot with own contributions but there has never been a better example of “leading from the front”.

3. Picking one might be injustice to many, but I have to pick one - i’ll go for my personal choice here. Not the nicest guy, but I respect Ian Chappel lot - between Lloyd & Chappel, head says Lloyd, heart tells CappelI. I’ll go with the heart, I am emotional.

Honarable mentions should be Warwick Armstrong, Lord Dexter, Tony Greig, Sir Worell, Tiger Pataudi, AH Kardar, G Smith, AB, Tubby Tylor and Mushtaq.
 
Last edited:
Robert said:
Jardine
Benaud
Lloyd

I would say Brearley but he wasn’t up to test standard as a batter. Also he retired before ten tests against WI, came back against AUS and looked like a genius.
Click to expand...

Whats your reason behind picking Jardine ahead of others? Just curious.
 
MMHS said:
I think, this list should be based on Test cricket, or other way I say my ranking is based on Test.

My top 3 are:

1. Richi Benaud - the best tactical genius game has ever seen. He was outstanding man manager, an outstanding cricketer whose stats doesn’t justify his capability. Averages on 23 with bat, but I can say those 23 were the most valuable ever for his team - he hardly ever let down his team under pressure even with bat. A charming character whose entire focus was to attack & get 20 wickets. He was the architect of most diversified Test attack ever - Lindwall, Miller, Davidson, Benaud, Johnson, O’Neil - and he knew how to use them.

2. Imran - the most dominant player as Captain. No player, not even Bradman raised his game to such level as leader. He was the greatest competitor in the game I have seen and he assambled a shambles into a war machine. Not the most tactical genius which he covered lot with own contributions but there has never been a better example of “leading from the front”.

3. Picking one might be injustice to many, but I have to pick one - i’ll go for my personal choice here. Not the nicest guy, but I respect Ian Chappel lot - between Lloyd & Chappel, head says Lloyd, heart tells CappelI. I’ll go with the heart, I am emotional.

Honarable mentions should be Warwick Armstrong, Lord Dexter, Tony Greig, Sir Worell, Tiger Pataudi, AH Kardar, G Smith, AB, Tubby Tylor and Mushtaq.
Click to expand...

No Graeme Smith?
 
When you have Mcgrath, Warne etc even a numpty could captain. Lloyd ok fair enough he developed his team but Waugh was basically gifted a legendary team in the making.

Ganguly is underrated. Without him India would still be a timid side. He set the platform for India in the early 2000s.

Smith is self explanatory and Nasser like Ganguly set the platform for future world no.1 teams.

1) Lloyd
2) Imran
3) Smith/Ganguly/Nasser
 
Shandarchowka said:
1. Imran
2. Lloyd
3. Ponting

Honorable mentions - Ranatunga, Misbah, Steve Waugh
Click to expand...

Whats the reason behind mentioning Ponting? Generally he is considered an above average captain who won because of an ATG team.
 
GLORY OF '92 said:
When you have Mcgrath, Warne etc even a numpty could captain. Lloyd ok fair enough he developed his team but Waugh was basically gifted a legendary team in the making.

Ganguly is underrated. Without him India would still be a timid side. He set the platform for India in the early 2000s.

Smith is self explanatory and Nasser like Ganguly set the platform for future world no.1 teams.

1) Lloyd
2) Imran
3) Smith/Ganguly/Nasser
Click to expand...

Not really.

Supreme talent contains supreme ego. It’s hard to not be agitated by them yet alone captain them. That’s why Ponting called McGrath the most difficult to captain because he wouldn’t let go of the ball.

You saw it in the 90’s with the two W’s, Inzimam, Malik, Anwar, Sohail, Mushtaq, Saqlain, Ijaz, etc.

That was a world class team that achieved far less than their potential due to the inability of a solid leadership. Imran was captain for ten years. The next longest reign for captain was eighteen years later after a spot-fixing scandal and loss of home advantage (Misbah from 2010-2017). How many captaincy changes did we see from 92-2010?

That’s why Ponting is in my opinion, the greatest ODI Captain because he won matches even without his star players. (Lee, McGrath, Warne, Gilchrist, Hayden, etc).
 
My top 3 is the same as [MENTION=79064]MMHS[/MENTION], who has explained the rationale better than I could.

1. Benaud
2. Imran
3. Chappell

Of the ones I've seen in the flesh though over the last 25 years, it will be:

1. Taylor
2. Vaughan
3. Smith
 
Tests:
1. Lloyd
2. G. Smith
3. Imran

ODIs:
1. Ranatunga
2. Dhoni
3. Fleming
 
I don't understand why so many people are picking Clive Lloyd.

With the kind of players he had at his disposal, probably all he needed to do was to show up at the ground. The same holds for Ricky Ponting in the late 1990s, early 2000s Australia. I don't think these two are great captains in any way.

To me, a great captain is one who can and provide leadership when the chips are down and pull the team out of dire straits. Examples of great captains are Abdul Kardar, Manzur Ali Khan Pataudi, Alan Border, Imran Khan, Sourav Ganguly and Graeme Smith.
 
gani999 said:
I don't understand why so many people are picking Clive Lloyd.

With the kind of players he had at his disposal, probably all he needed to do was to show up at the ground. The same holds for Ricky Ponting in the late 1990s, early 2000s Australia. I don't think these two are great captains in any way.

To me, a great captain is one who can and provide leadership when the chips are down and pull the team out of dire straits. Examples of great captains are Abdul Kardar, Manzur Ali Khan Pataudi, Alan Border, Imran Khan, Sourav Ganguly and Graeme Smith.
Click to expand...

The issue is Clive made that team himself.
 
gani999 said:
I don't understand why so many people are picking Clive Lloyd.

With the kind of players he had at his disposal, probably all he needed to do was to show up at the ground. The same holds for Ricky Ponting in the late 1990s, early 2000s Australia. I don't think these two are great captains in any way.

To me, a great captain is one who can and provide leadership when the chips are down and pull the team out of dire straits. Examples of great captains are Abdul Kardar, Manzur Ali Khan Pataudi, Alan Border, Imran Khan, Sourav Ganguly and Graeme Smith.
Click to expand...

Later on, yes. However, he constructed that team himself after Gavasker feasted on the four-man spin attack of the Windies and Lloyd decided "never again".

He then put together the most feared bowling attack of all-time. Not to mention that he himself was a leader who led from the front.
 
Bilal7 said:
The top three would be Imran, Lloyd and Waugh. The order is down to personal preference.



The basis is the pathetic, gutless 8:0 humiliation. It is laughable that Dhoni is even mentioned here.
Click to expand...

Come on don't be too harsh he is not that bad
The Man with 2 World Cup and and One CT in his kitty atleast deserved a mentioned
 
gani999 said:
I don't understand why so many people are picking Clive Lloyd.
Click to expand...

His great skill was to get players from several different rival nations to cooperate.

My central memory of Big Clive was watching him bat against young lads in the Lord’s Nursery nets. Huge man with great long arms. He batted right-handed to encourage the boys and he let one of them bowl him, to big cheers from the onlooking fans.
 
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