This year, the ICC Champions Trophy will be contested in the United Kingdom for the third time.
With Australia aiming to capture a record third Champions Trophy, a feat which has never been done in cricketing history, the question has to be asked.
Is Australia the greatest ODI cricketing nation?
The statistics certainly suggest just that, with the Australians holding 554 wins in 898 ODI appearances.
Not only the most appearances for one day internationals, but also the best winning percentage, at 64.49 per cent.
The closest cricketing nation to that is South Africa, with a 64.24 winning percentage.
Australia’s Test record isn’t too shabby either, with a winning percentage of 47.06 per cent, the highest ever. Yet this is a one-day cricket article, so we’ll keep it at that.
Coming with their incredible win percentage, the Aussies have also won five ICC World Cups, achieved on the five continents of Africa, Asia, America, Oceania and Europe.
(Photo: AAP)
The second most World Cups won by a team is two, with both India and West Indies holding that achievement.
As well as that, Australia has also made two other World Cup finals, giving them seven appearances in the final of the big dance.
The World Cup’s younger brother, the Champions Trophy, has seen the Australians grab two trophies at the tournament. Only one other team has won two Champions Trophy’s, India, and they captured their second as co-champions in a washed out final in 2002.
The Aussies have also made the finals six out of seven times, again a record.
The most consecutive wins without being defeated comes from the Australians, with 34 victories (ties and no-results don’t count). The next closest are the Indians, with 11 in a row.
They also did not drop a match in the 2003 or 2007 World Cups, just for good measure.
While individual records may be dominated by the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Jacques Kallis and Kumar Sangakarra, there is no doubting that Australia has been the most successful cricketing nation in ODI cricket, with phenomenal talent scattered throughout their squads.
If Australia is able to capture a historic third Champions Trophy title, they will easily cement themselves as the greatest ODI nation, if there is any reason to doubt them now.
With so many records pointing in their favour, it is hard to deny Australia as the best ever.
Rajat
Guest
Indian team is the best .Currently they have beaten Australian team in a five match odI
Cadfael
Roar Guru
The Windies teams of the mid 70s to 80s was the best. Remember, they had to change the rules because of their play and it was after this that oither sides caught up.
James
Guest
How the hell can Australia unarguably be the best if they win one more competition when you even mention that the current difference between Australia and South Africa is 0.25% winning ratio? You also cant name a greatest team and then only talk about countries as if the same players played all the time. Australia has the best record absolutely but dont really see how we can say more than that.
davSA
Guest
Well Ouch one of the problems the SA side had was absolutely no quality spinners at all levels of cricket so a highly talented player like Cullinan right from school level really got little exposure to it . Actually against other teams he coped reasonably well with spin . But Warnie had his number mentally that is for sure .He even consulted a shrink to try and deal with it. In addition with international isolation which most of the players in that era were developed in they had no opportunity to face consistently good spin. It has taken 20 years and not without great effort by the cricketing authorities to correct that . Today we have some of the best players of spin in the game . Think Amla. We are also only now starting to produce class spinners. This is also a significant reason for SA's underperformance in world cups.
Ouch
Guest
They were excellent, although always wondered why they kept picking Daryl Cullinan when they played against Australia. South Africa have been Australia's toughest opponents for over 20 years imo
davSA
Guest
In that period my side SA was very good. We knew it and it was frustrating for us because although in Shane Warnes own words " They provided us with our toughest games " we still more often than not came up short against them.
jack
Guest
The current english team is the best ever. Just ask them.
davSA
Guest
Cronjes biggest problem , well on field at least was that throughout his tenor he never had a decent spinner to call on . Teams especially in the away games would capitalize on that . His best was Pat Symcox who by todays SA spin standards wouldn't even make a domestic side. .. What he did do with the likes of Rhodes in the team was to establish SA as easily the best fielding side possibly that the game had ever seen.
davSA
Guest
The Aus team 1999 World cup . Just some of the names , Waugh brothers , Warne , McGrath , Ponting , Gilchrist , Bevan , Lehmann , Reiffel .... Who even today would want to take them on. It had only strengths not a single weak point.
Rellum
Roar Guru
Over history yes Aus is the best. Having watched them, the Windies team on the 70's-80's was the best team even if they didn't win enough world cups to justify that opinion. The Aus team of the late 90's-2000's is the only other great team to play one day cricket, and on results is easily the best.
Giri Subramanian
Roar Guru
Australia no doubt is the greatest ODI team ever. No one has dominated the game more than them. Only the WI team of the 70's and 80's come close but that was a different era. Australia for me is still the team to beat. They are terrific fighters and never give up.
Ouch
Guest
"Is Australia the greatest ODI cricketing nation?" 5 World Cups won on every continent. 2 Champions league titles. No-one else comes close.
BrainsTrust
Guest
The West Indies around the 70-80's were the best natural one day team. Australia were a lot more professional in their approach. Australia mastered training up all their weakest players in fielding and running between the wickets. The West Indies had a lot of great athletes in that era but they were more casual particularly running between the wickets. The best one day captains percentage wise LLoyd 77% Ponting 76% Cronje 73%. Clarke 70% Ponting I assume had a better percentage than LLoyd and it would have decline a bit at the later part though if you look at Clarke he had a good percentage and followed Ponting. If you look at the most succesfull teams the common thread is quality of the fielding , each captain is a great allround fielder, Discipline is also a strong point though with Ponting its more the case of him following Steve Waugh and the team structure with the coaches following on from that. LLoyd was known as the supercat for his fielding even though he was old and slow by the mid 80's. He is the most noted disciplinarian which was not the case with Viv Richards. West Indies did find a way to get Roger Harper on the field so they used to cheat a bit that way when other players got older. West Indies were not noted for their all rounders, while thats the feature of Cronje's team.
vaibhav
Guest
i am from india but would say windies team of 70s 80s and aussies from 90s to mid 00s were the most dominating teams ever seen..
Tapeshwer Singh
Guest
I dont think there is any question about that ,australian team of early to mid 2000s was the best.