Who was Australia's greatest ever captain?

[trundler]

Wisden - The gift of captaincy

This is a great article but was published in 1954. Cardus recounts great English and Australian captains.

 

[trundler]

I suppose Pakistan can only look back on Imran's captaincy with pride. India have his counterpart Kapil Dev as well as Pataudi and Ganguly. Dhoni's test captaincy isn't particularly well regarded. Don't know what to make of Gavaskar as a captain. Hutton was a great captain but he too was regarded as too negative at times. Archie Maclaren, Jardine, Brearley, and FS Jackson were reputedy brilliant as well. Shout out to Strauss and Nasser. Australia have indeed been blessed in this regard. Worrell the most inspiring of them all. Impossibly to overlook Lloyd for obvious reasons. Richards never lost a series despite his side ageing. Sobers's reputation as a captain is perhaps forever tainted by a reckless Port of Spain declaration.

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

Tim Paine.

The man you need when there's chaos and tragedy.

 

[h_hurricane]

Adam Gilchrist.

Border tried, he failed.
Tayor tried, he failed.
Waugh tried, he failed.
Glichrist tried, he succeeded.
Ponting tried after Glichrist succeeded, he failed.

 

[Red]

Benaud, Ian Chappell, Mark Taylor, Allan Border, Bradman

In no particular order

 

[Fuller Pilch]

John Bertrand, Wally Lewis or John Eales

 

[Zinzan]

Tubby

This, tactically speaking. Tubby Taylor.

Surprised you're the only one to mention so far.

 

[aussie tragic]

Ian Chappell

 

[Burgey]

tbf Australia and England win basically every single 'best depth of any team in cricket history' debate just because their history is just so much longer.

Would be interesting to list out all Test captains from all Test nations and try to evaluate which country produces the best captains on average. Maybe even weight it by number of games captained.

What’s up mate? 70 odd years of test cricket not long enough to get your collective **** together?

 

[Burgey]

Adam Gilchrist.

Border tried, he failed.
Tayor tried, he failed.
Waugh tried, he failed.
Glichrist tried, he succeeded.
Ponting tried after Glichrist succeeded, he failed.

By your measure, it’s Bill Lawry. Presumably India awaits its first decent skipper, having never done the mirror image and won in Australia.

 

[Bolo]

Thoughts on Clarke? He was tactically... interesting.

I know he wasn't exactly beloved, but I think he got a fair bit out of limited resources.

Doesn't fit the AUS captain profile, but worth a thought?

 

[stephen]

Thoughts on Clarke? He was tactically... interesting.

I know he wasn't exactly beloved, but I think he got a fair bit out of limited resources.

Doesn't fit the AUS captain profile, but worth a thought?

I think tactically Clarke was the best I've seen. Ponting was a good man manager but tactically weak.

Border head and shoulders above everyone else for impact on the game and ability to make use of limited resources.

 

[Burgey]

Thoughts on Clarke? He was tactically... interesting.

I know he wasn't exactly beloved, but I think he got a fair bit out of limited resources.

Doesn't fit the AUS captain profile, but worth a thought?

Yeah Clarke was tactically brilliant imo but obviously divisive. He took a bloke bowling 125kph and a rookie spinner to SL when they were good in his first series and won there and did funky things which paid off.

I rate Taylor tactically, but tbh I don't understand how Waugh gets marked down as a skipper because he led a great side, when Taylor had the likes of McGrath, Warne, McDermott, Gillespie, Boon, the Waughs, Slater and Healy in his side as well.

Obviously the answer is TOTAB, a reluctant leader whose resolve was forged in the furnace of the dark days of the mid 80s. He was sometimes criticized for not being aggressive enough, but keep in mind the number decent positions his side pissed away when he took over, in between the floggings they received. I mean fmd, he declared twice in the cesspool tied test and nearly lost it. Which is why, after that they used to say he only declared at customs.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Clarke's name shouldn't be mentioned here. On-field tactics are only a part of being a good captain and he was **** at the rest of it.

Has to be Border or Waugh I guess. (out of the last 20-30 years)

The greatest captain Australia never had was Shane Warne. That would have been interesting at least.

 

[howardj]

Tugga

He turned us into a killing machine

 

[Burgey]

But TOTAB taught him how to be a killer.

 

[howardj]

Under Tubby, we were losing dead rubbers

Still getting toweled up away, although less frequently

But Tugga just squeezed every last drop out of what was a bloody fine rag, granted

Like Buchanan, he was the right person for that time/team

 

[jimmy101]

IIRC the only rubbers Australia lost during Taylor's reign were in India & Pakistan. Not too shabby at all.

 

[Bolo]

Tactically brilliant might be a bit too much praise because he made weird mistakes, but I'd say tactically very good to excellent, and brilliant to watch.

But outside of tactics, why doesn't he belong? I feel like he had zero resources when he took over. AUS looked set for a solid run as a really poor test nation. But individuals and the team came right under him

 

[Burgey]

Under Tubby, we were losing dead rubbers

Still getting toweled up away, although less frequently

But Tugga just squeezed every last drop out of what was a bloody fine rag, granted

Like Buchanan, he was the right person for that time/team

Tubby was the Tory interloper between the two Labor hard men, Border and Waugh. That's why he was content to be on top because of the hard work of those who went before him, and didn't motivate the team to be its best. It takes a Labor bloke to do that.