Captaincy plays a very important part in cricket. It’s a team game unlike most of the other sports which are mostly based around one person. It takes a group activity to get the job done and end up on the winning side.
For a side to show a good level of coordination, a captain needs to come to the forefront. A good leader is one who can make the best out of his team. It’s not about the individual performances but all of them performing collectively. A great captain would always look for a performance as a unit.
The smartest of captains have generally gone on to have a long run as leaders. The game can change within a couple of overs and it’s about seizing the moment for a smart leader. Hence, let’s take a look at-
Smartest captains of all-time in cricket history
10 Eoin Morgan
Let’s talk about a leader from modern cricket who has done an excellent job. Eoin Morgan is one of those captains who never made any noises around. His calm and collective head never led him to do silly stuff even if it was a match as close as the finals of World Cup 2019.
England suffered a huge defeat in the World Cup 2015 and were knocked out before the quarterfinals itself. Fast forward to 2019, they were the favourites to win the tournament. They proved the prediction right with a great win despite losing the track midway in the tournament.
Morgan would stick to his decisions no matter what happened during the course of the game. Aggressive batting was one of the mottos of England under him and chasing targets above 300 became a routine thing too. He backed his bowlers nicely as well which created the much-needed transition for the English side.
9 Arjuna Ranatunga
From one Sri Lankan to another, let’s talk about a captain who was a great resemblance to Pakistan’s Imran Khan. Although not at all that humble, he was definitely a very smart captain. He would be very arrogant on the field but it didn’t matter as long as he provided those results.
He was one of the first leaders to understand the aggressive approach required in ODI cricket. The reason why players like Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana went on to play risk-free cricket was the backing from Ranatunga. He would give it all for his team to play as aggressively as they can.
Things worked wonders when Sri Lanka finally won the world cup in 1996. He understood the game like no one else on the Sri Lankan side and he was vocal about it. He did have a lot of controversial moments on the field but you can’t take away the fact that he always stood for his players.
8 Mahela Jayawardene
Jayawardene was very aggressive in his own rights. Normally it would be advised that a captain needs a calm head to keep his team together. Jayawardene was just a little different but he provided much-needed results for Sri Lanka.
He was the man of the pressure situations both as a captain as well as a player. He would normally love to play in a situation where he had to take control. His innings in the finals of World Cup 2011 is a fantastic example of the statement. He provided those results in the ODIs with the best winning percentage amongst the captains having captained so many matches.
Mahela might have been an aggressive personality but his game was like a proper gentleman. He had a great perspective about the game and was always lauded by his teammates for that. You have to give it to him for leading from the front in the 2007 World Cup where Sri Lanka were the runner-up.
7 Imran Khan
Imran Khan has to go down as the best captain of the Pakistani side. Pakistan has always been a great cricketing nation but they have lacked a good captain all the time. Their captains have done good stuff but none as consistently as Imran Khan.
He was a true leader who also was a great all-rounder of the game. Teammates would look up to him as a player all the time. He made them work collectively which gifted them the world cup in 1992.
Ever since he retired, there’s always been a clash of thoughts in the leadership group of Pakistan. The egos have always been really huge in the side and to conduct them with all class was only possible to a great leader like Imran. He was stupendous at taking the right decisions without having any bias in it, something that was lacking in the Pakistani captains to come after him.
6 Steve Waugh
Remember the time when Australia won sixteen consecutive Test matches in the late 90s? Steve Waugh was the captain of the side throughout those matches. He was the first one to have that aggressive approach as the captain. The same sort of captaincy methods were used by Ponting in a more refined way in the years to come when the latter captained the side.
Steve Waugh wasn’t a great leader, to begin with, in fact, he had to bear a lot of criticism regarding his methods. But he made it look very effortless in the times to come. He kept improving as a captain with time which was the biggest takeaway from his stint.
Tugga was very upfront with his approach as a captain but it didn’t mean that he would be aggressive all the time. In his last Test, he showed a great deal of composure to save the test match against India. It must have taken a great effort for a complete turnaround for Australia to win the world cup in 1999 and he had his part to play for the transition of the Aussie team.
5 Sourav Ganguly
Before MS Dhoni, there was Sourav Ganguly who led the Indian team. He took over the reins from Sachin Tendulkar in 2000, at a time when Indian cricket was at its worst. It wasn’t going to be easy for him but he made the transition look seamless.
Early on, he helped India reach the finals of the Champions Trophy. He was the highest run-getter in the entire tournament. Soon after, he elevated a couple of youngsters to make a better Indian side. Guys like Sehwag, Yuvraj, Harbhajan, Zaheer Khan went on to become crucial players during the time of MS Dhoni as a captain as well.
If it wasn’t for his controversial axing in 2005, he could have served longer as the captain of the side. He was again controversially axed in early 2008 even though he had a fantastic run in both formats in 2007. Regardless, he could elevate players to the next level and he was a genius at the same.
4 Stephen Fleming
Fleming also had a great aura as a captain. He had one of the greatest legacies as a captain as well as a player. Stephen Fleming was the first New Zealand cricketer to go past 7k runs in Test cricket, having played 111 matches to reach the mark.
He was considered a great strategist who knew how to play the conditions. Fleming was the captain of a side that didn’t have many match-winners already. He created the moments out of those players who went on to become huge later, Mccullum and Vettori to name a few.
In 2000, New Zealand went on to win the inaugural Champions Trophy and Fleming was the captain. Under him, they went into the semi-finals a couple of times too. It might not seem a great deal on paper but the fact that New Zealand looked like a threatening team had a lot to do with Fleming’s captaincy.
3 Ricky Ponting
When we talk about success and dominance by a captain, Ricky Ponting sits on top comfortably. He led Australia in an era where his team literally thrashed everyone. It was really hard to beat the kangaroos once in a blue moon too.
Considering it was a star-studded team, they definitely required a charismatic captain. Who could have done the job any better? Ponting was really aggressive as a captain and always led from the front.
Punter would always look for a dominant win on his team’s part and he clearly hated losing. But when things didn’t fall in place in the late 2000s, he showed spirit even when he was out of form. This showed that Ricky Ponting loved to fight, that too from the very front even if it meant he would have to take all the blame for Australia’s losses.
2 Graeme Smith
Graeme Smith might be judged based on the fact that he never won a World Cup as the captain. But he has done a lot of good as a captain. You can look at the South Africa Team since he retired and how things have been going down for them.
Biff first started as a captain at the age of 22, a very young age to lead a side. Considering the fact that the team consisted of Gibbs, Boucher, Kallis in the team, the decision came as a bit of surprise early on. It will be an understatement that his critics were proven wrong.
Graeme Smith went on to become the most successful Test captain of all time with 53 wins. He also had a pretty solid record in ODIs with 163 wins. His calm head along with a fantastic determination made his legacy as one of the smartest captains ever.
1 MS Dhoni
When we talk about captains, we can’t ever leave MSD out of the conversation. Such has been his impact that most of the current captains look up to him. To be fair, he has earned every bit of the praise he gets from his fans.
When India went into the inaugural World T20 with a team filled with youngsters, it wasn’t easy to win matches against some of the solid teams. Not only did India do well in the tournament, but they also went on to win the entire thing. MSD’s captaincy played a major role and his legacy had just started.
13 years from that moment and MSD is still in his element as a captain. He did a great job in IPL 2021 before it was suspended indefinitely. There might be many captains who had an amazing run, but none as good as the captain cool.
