Stephen Fleming v Ricky Ponting

[Richard]

Fleming, ITBT. Ponting nowhere near as bad as he's oft been made-out to be, but not as good as Fleming, who was beyond doubt the best cricket captain I've seen.

 

[Burgey]

Then you never saw Taylor, I Chappell, Illingworth or Lloyd I take it?

Not a criticism, Fleming was a fine captain, but I think he gets over-rated because he put in 2 gullies and a short point to Martyn and told his batters to let everything from McGrath go. I think, with all due respect to him, if it hadn't rained int he 1st 2 tests of that series v Australia which was drawn, his rep wouldn't have been as great as it is now.

 

[NZTailender]

Then you never saw Taylor, I Chappell, Illingworth or Lloyd I take it?

Not a criticism, Fleming was a fine captain, but I think he gets over-rated because he put in 2 gullies and a short point to Martyn and told his batters to let everything from McGrath go. I think, with all due respect to him, if it hadn't rained int he 1st 2 tests of that series v Australia which was drawn, his rep wouldn't have been as great as it is now.

Yeah, you're forgetting he captained New Zealand against teams other than Australia...

 

[biased indian]

Dont count my vote for ponting Sorry !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Would have voted Fleming....didnt read the post

 

[Richard]

Then you never saw Taylor, I Chappell, Illingworth or Lloyd I take it?

The lattermost three never even captained a Test in my lifetime (Illingworth's last game was over a decade before I was born and Chappell's exactly that to a week!) and while Taylor was undoubtedly a top-drawer captain his last series was the first after I'd got seriously into the game, before which I never really watched attentively enough to appreciate how good captaincy worked.

It's very possible, going by what I've read, that three of the aforementioned four (never thought that much of Lloyd - like Stephen Waugh his captaincy wasn't exceptional, just the results of his team - his captaincy was merely adaquete) were at least equals of Fleming, plus others besides (such as Mike Brearley and Imran Khan - better still than any) but then again, I've read many times that Shane Warne was a good captain, and that's completely contradicted by what I've seen.

Not a criticism, Fleming was a fine captain, but I think he gets over-rated because he put in 2 gullies and a short point to Martyn and told his batters to let everything from McGrath go. I think, with all due respect to him, if it hadn't rained int he 1st 2 tests of that series v Australia which was drawn, his rep wouldn't have been as great as it is now.

Yeah, you're forgetting he captained New Zealand against teams other than Australia...

Exactly. It's so annoying how people think the only thing of note Fleming ever did was in that one VB Series, and to a lesser extent in the preceding Tests.