subshakerz
International Coach
I find Clarke's captaincy quite overrated. He was whitewashed in India and UAE and lost both Ashes in England. He mostly won at home in series you would expect Australia to win.Border > Clarke > Taylor > Ponting > Smith > Waugh
I’ve got a lot of respect for captains who take over sides that are in transition - especially if the team is also on an obvious down-hill slide.
So I’ve put Border and Clarke top of the list because they took over at the most difficult time and did remarkable jobs given their circumstances. Unfotunately for Clarke he was also hampered by an inept and antagonistic management team that was all clipboards, pie-charts and home-work.
The fact that Clarke’s record shows 24 wins and 16 losses over 47 Test matches seems very good to me given the crap he had to put up with.
Incidently, softened-up and hit numerous times on the body by Steyn and Morkel his Cape Town innings in 2011 remains one of greatest captains knocks of all time - 151 off 176 balls out of a team total of 284. Even Border himself would have been proud of that.
1st Test, Australia tour of South Africa at Cape Town, Nov 9-11 2011 | Match Summary | ESPNCricinfo