In any sport, including cricket, leadership is crucial to a team’s success. For a cricket player, becoming the commander of their nation is undoubtedly the most significant accomplishment of their career.Since the first cricket match took place back in the 19th century, we have seen some of the best minds in the sport lead their national teams to greatness with style and brilliance.
Despite the strain and responsibility that come with the job, certain players have excelled at their responsibilities and advanced their teams. Many captains have come and gone and established their legacy in cricket history, only some stand-out captains come to people’s minds. Let’s take a look at three of the best captains in cricket history.
1. MS Dhoni
With an overall victory rate of 53.61 across all forms and 178 victories out of 332 games when captaining his team, former Team India captain MS Dhoni comes in first on the list of the finest captains in the world.
He was appointed captain in 2007 and led the Indian cricket team during its most prosperous period (2007–2018), leading his team to three ICC titles (20-20 World Cup 2007, 50-50 World Cup 2011, and Champions Trophy 2013). It’s interesting to note that under his guidance, Team India achieved their first-ever No. 1 rating in Test cricket in 2009.
Ricky Ponting, a former captain of the Australian cricket team, is the most successful captain in the world,according to the statistics, winning 220 of the 324 games he captained, with an astounding win percentage of approximately 68.
Ponting oversaw Australia’s victories in the 50-50 World Cup in 2003 and 2007, as well as the Champions Trophy in 2006 and 2009. Even though, he has a higher win percentage than Dhoni, the latter had a crucial part in the side’s plays and decisions on the field and some of his decisions lead to India prospering in crucial junctures of the game
3. Graeme Smith
One of the most underappreciated commanders is none other than Graeme Smith, the greatest captain of all time for South Africa and one of the best captains of all time in general. He led South Africa as captain for more than ten years.
His 109 Test Matches as South Africa’s captain set a record for the most Test Matches a Captain has captained. In 53 of those matches, he prevailed. He won 92 of the 150 one-day internationals he played in while captaining South Africa.