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The best Australian Test Captain in the last Quarter Century

Who's the best test captain?


  • Total voters
    48

Precambrian

Banned
It's 24 something years since Allan Border took over Australian captaincy and started the Great Dynasty which has seen just 3 regular captains to date. So, who's been the best (not necessarily the most successful)?

Allan Robert Border (1984-94)

Captained Australia through the dark period of 1980s. Took over captaincy reluctantly from Kim Hughes, and marred by player defections to rebel team who toured SA, lost the 1985 Ashes and the 1986-87 Ashes. Started the rebuilding of the side with Bob Simpson, and captained Aus to an unexpected win in 1987 and regained the Ashes in 1989 which they retained till the end of his career. However he could not acheive a series win over Windies during his tenure and ended his career in 1994. He captained Australia in 93 tests which is a record.

Stats as captain:
Code:
Stats as captain
					
[B]Played	Won	Lost	Tied	Drawn	Win%[/B]
93	32	22	1	38	34%

Mark Anthony Taylor (1994-99)

Wikipedia says, "In contrast to his predecessor Allan Border, who acquired the nickname 'Captain Grumpy', Taylor won plaudits for his always cheerful and positive demeanour". Took over from AB in 1994, and continued the rebuilding of the Australian Team. Started with an away loss of 1-0 to Pakistan, Australia retained the Ashes and then famously captained them to a 2-1 victory in the Carribean, which saw them regain the Frank Worrel Trophy after a gap of 22 years, and with that the crown of World Champions. In al, he captained Australia in 50 tests, and ended up with an impressive win ratio of 52%,

Code:
Stats as captain					

[B]Played	Won	Lost	Tied	Drawn	Win%[/B]
50	26	13	0	11	52%

Stephen Rodger Waugh (1999-2004)

Widely credited as the captained under which Australia peaked as a team, and virtually revolutionised Test cricket with aggressive cricket with a no-draw approach and established firmly Australia's stature as World Champions with the help of stalwarts like Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist. He won test series everywhere in the world except for India, which he described as the "Final Frontier". He captained Australia in 57 tests, leading them to victory in 41 of them, including a record 16 straight wins.

Code:
Stats as captain					

[B]Played	Won	Lost	Tied	Drawn	Win%[/B]
57	41	9	0	7	72%

Ricky Thomas Ponting (2004-)

Ricky Ponting inherited captaincy from Waugh in early 2004 and a team at its peak, and is perhaps the most successful captain in the history of cricket. He, however became the first captain to lose the Ashes in 2005 since Allan Border in 86-87. But Australia emphatically regained it in 2006-07 with a 5-0 whitewash, post which he lost the services of eminent players like McGrath, Warne, Langer, Gilchrist etc. He has captained Australia to wins everywhere, except India, where he is currently in the bid with a new-look team, which is in the process of rebuilding.

Code:
Stats as captain (upto Mohali Test)
					
[B]Played	Won	Lost	Tied	Drawn	Win%[/B]
46	33	5	0	8	72%

Adam Craig Gilchrist

The wicketkeeper batsman captained Australia in 6 tests, 2 as stand-in for Steve Waugh and 4 for Ponting. Australia won 4 out of these tests, including 2 over India in 2004, which ultimately resulted them winning that series 2-1, the first time they did so since 1969.

Code:
Stats as captain					

[B]Played	Won	Lost	Tied	Drawn	Win%[/B]
6	4	1	0	1	67%
Go on, vote and pull in your thoughts.
 

Precambrian

Banned
I think Mark Taylor takes the cake, as it is under him that the pillars of modern Aussie cricket, McG, Warney, Punter etc evolved into the world beaters.
 

masterblaster

International Captain
Mark Taylor has always been my favourite Australian Captain. Loved the way he played the game and captained the side. Steve Waugh comes in at a close second. Gilchrist is one of my favourite players but he didn't captain for a long enough period of time for me to evaluate his performance. So Taylor wins it overall with Waugh coming in at second place.
 

social

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Taylor, Waugh and Border were all excellent captains

Border, whist tactically inept, singlehandedly changed the culture of Australian cricket and dragged the team back from the abyss through sheer will power

Taylor was tactically brilliant but despite a couple of great performances, was carried in the team for long stretches as a player

Waugh was tough, aggressive and led a great team from the front

I'll go for Waugh as I have the traditional Austraian belief that you pick your 11 best players and then select a captain.

Unfortunately, there were times during his reign that Taylor simply should not have been picked as a player
 

Anil

Hall of Fame Member
taylor easily the best, border for his inspirational leadership during a dark period in aussie cricket comes 2nd for me, waugh third...
 

archie mac

International Coach
I took Steve Waugh, I thought he re-invented the way teams play Test cricket, it made the idea of five days for a Test seem like kids having six months off for holidays, far too long

Although he did not always seem to have a plan B:)
 

SJS

Hall of Fame Member
I took Steve Waugh, I thought he re-invented the way teams play Test cricket, it made the idea of five days for a Test seem like kids having six months off for holidays, far too long

Although he did not always seem to have a plan B:)
Actually its a tough one between Border, Taylor and Waugh. They all got the team at different stages of its rise to world domination and each brought something to the entire process.

I chose Taylor because he got the team about halfway or lower. Border fought and used a lot of his personal example to push the team slowly upwards from near rock bottom. He ensured that the team did not completely disintegrate in what can be termed a cricketing 'depression' of the type West Indies cricket has faced and Lara has proved unequal to pull them out of. But Taylor made the entire team work at different levels - much higher than where he got them. Both had a job to do.

Waugh got a near finished product but gave the finishing touches which included the supreme confidence bordering on arrogance which made them play, even in the rare moments of crisis, as if they were right on top of the world with not a care in the world. It was an important job but I feel Taylor had the tougher job to do and did it completely without fuss and almost anonymously.
 
Last edited:

BoyBrumby

Englishman
I think Mark Taylor takes the cake
& the pie, the chips, the burger... :ph34r:

But yeah, Taylor for me too. Couldn't have seen any of the others been retained after the run of bad form he had going into the 1997 Ashes. This was obviously pre-interweb (or at least I hadn't yet set forth on the information superhighway), but one couldn't open a sports section without some Aussie pundit calling for his head. One of the Chappells I recall being particularly vociferous on the subject.

Tubs tonned up in the 2nd innings too, very much the captain's knock.
 

andruid

Cricketer Of The Year
The way Steve Waugh's Australia always seemed to outmaneuver just about everybody else was amazing. Plus he led a very strong team from the front
 

Goughy

Hall of Fame Member
I went with Waugh.

Mainly based on the bad run Taylor had.

His form and his position as captain became a distraction.

As great as his decision making was this does detract from his position to do his job and the criticism he is given by press, fans and teammates.

Waugh may not be quite the tactician Taylor was, but then his form allowed him to keep an even keel and there were less distractions.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Tubs but Warne the best captain Aus never had.
Absence truly does make the heart grow fonder. Warne would've been a disaster as Australia captain, for mine.

Anyway, Taylor without doubt for me. I never watched him captain all that much but pretty well everyone I've ever read talk about the subject said he was a far better captain than his predecessor Border, who was more light in the gloom than anything else, and certainly than his successor Stephen Waugh, who merely inherited an excellent side and would've found it almost impossible not to be successful. He had a hand in helping avoid dead-rubber syndrome but I really don't think that's a terribly important consideration.

And as for Taylor's supposedly poor batting, well, he had a horror trot between January 1996 and July 1997 - comprising 14 Tests out of 97 - plus 2 bad Tests to start with and a terrible final series, which more players than not tend to do. But between 1989 and 1993/94 (ie, before taking the captaincy) he averaged 48.36 in 52 Tests, which was a pretty stunning performance for an opener considering the calibre of some of the bowling (outside tours of England) that he came up against. For his first 17 Tests as captain he averaged 44.29 then came the 14 shocking Tests in which he averaged 19.50 (and this included that famous second-innings century at Edgbaston in 1997). In his next 14 Tests he averaged 64.66, giving him a captaincy average excluding the down patch and the last series of 53.20 from 31 games. And being carried for 14 games and being one of your side's best performers for another 31 doesn't really qualify as a blot on one's captaincy for my money.

Stephen Waugh, let's not forget, had a very poor trot indeed in the 2001/02 season. If Taylor is to be penalised for his bad trot in 1996 and 1997, Waugh should not rate above him because of it.
 

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