From 1990 to now, who was the best Aussie captain?

Very interesting story Clayton, nice work. Border was an amazing captain because he led Australia out of the darkness of the mid-80s with his steely approach. Then in 1994 Border handed a golden ticket to Taylor, who made the most of it by being a very innovative and proactive tactician and, by all accounts, a good man manager. Waugh inherited an even stronger hand and, while an incredible player, I think he wasn't an outstanding tactician or leader. Clarke was an incredibly clever tactician but, it seems, a really bad man manager. Smith, so far, has been ordinary in all facets by the looks of it.

Very interesting story Clayton, nice work. Border was an amazing captain because he led Australia out of the darkness of the mid-80s with his steely approach. Then in 1994 Border handed a golden ticket to Taylor, who made the most of it by being a very innovative and proactive tactician and, by all accounts, a good man manager. Waugh inherited an even stronger hand and, while an incredible player, I think he wasn't an outstanding tactician or leader. Clarke was an incredibly clever tactician but, it seems, a really bad man manager. Smith, so far, has been ordinary in all facets by the looks of it.

Border for mine - how many times did any of the others - both as batsman and as captain - have to face those giant Windies 100 mph missile-launchers? Couldn't put Waugh at the top, despite his obvious talents - has any other captain so constantly brought the 'Australian' game into disrepute? And made himself so hard to admire for no good purpose?

Low effort in terms of the amount of fielding and supplementary training that teams did Lillee was a pioneer in some ways, after his first big injury he worked hard on his batting and physical training as he couldn't work on his bowling. CHappels were great fielders, though Ian CHappell could have been in better shape, Greg Chappell was more health conscious but he was also more aloof and less concerned with his teammates, In those days the Australian team did less extra work than a county team which might have not been a concern when they had natural talent but in Borders early days the team was dropping a lot and not saving any runs... It was a bit embarassing that AUstralia were shown up by new Zealand's county cricketers in those days in fielding and running between the wickets. Border did not want to be captain, he threatened to resign if his teammates didn't improve, so in came Simpson to help with the team and make it easier for Border. Chappel had a big ego and was not a believer in extra unecessary training, Taylor got rid of SImpson when he took over and being naturally lazy he would not have tolerated him in the first place.

Whilst I have the utmost admiration for Steve Smith as a player , whats not to like about that , I see him as a real problem to his side as a captain . Some of the greatest players have tried captaincy and despite having all the attributes and credentials just don't seem to be the best leaders . A very good comparison to Smith would be AB de Villiers.

I agree Allan Border is the number one whichever way we look at it. Waugh and Taylor come next.

AB easily. As a child growing up in the 80s it was heartbreaking to see the big three of Lillee, Chappell and Marsh retire coupled with many of the next tier players signing for the South African rebel tour. Australia did not win a test series from 1983 to 1987 (NZ in Australia) with embarrassing losses at home to WI, NZ and England during that time. AB was the captain who set the standard, that being competitive but losing was not acceptable and with Simmo developed the first generation of cricket superstars (Steve Waugh took four years to score his first test century for example). The world cup win in 87 and reclaiming the Ashes in 89 were two of his high points. If Australia had not lost by 1 run at the Adelaide oval against the WI in 92-93 and reclaimed the Frank Worrell trophy, Border would be held in greater esteem than he is now. Taylor took a great team and made them world beaters. Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting inherited teams that had some of Australia's greatest ever cricketers. It should be remembered that when Australia won the test series in India in 2004, it was without Ricky Ponting for the first three tests - Gilchrist was leading the team. Michael's Clarke's character flaws should rank him quite lowly as an Australian captain.

I would have had Border at the top of the list. Like Ian Chappell, he brought the team up to being a cricketing great again. Yes, Taylor, Waugh, Ponting and Clarke all led great sides but these sides were in the main inherited where Border had to work from scratch.

exactly.. Steve waugh also had clashes with michael slater but some of that was slat's fault...

Bob Simpson as others have said was influential, he was a towering presence in the dressing room, but not the bedside manner that seems to impact Greg Chappell where ever he has gone e.g. Indian team/aussie high performance role, Greg Chappell becoz of his record as a player seems to controlling or stifling the teams he gets involved and they are tense and nervous maybe he's too dictaoral, where as Bob Simpson seems to have the right balance as boss but also he gave AB freedom to develop his own style and be a leader of the side to, they were both co-leaders, where as Greg Chappell seemed to have endless power struggles with Tendulkar/and Ganguly etc.

AB, Waugh and Taylor all have their strengths and Weaknesses, but all three stand out against the others that have come after. Clarke was a good tactician but off field he was a bit of a disaster. Smith seems better with the off field part but not great on Field. Same with Ricky. I would Probably put Taylor first, Border and Waugh a tie for second. I would put Ponting after that closely followed by Smith. Clarke is a distant last as he could not build a team off the field and that is more important than the tactics on the Field.

This is such a tough thing to call as there are so many factors in play. Waugh had an amazing record as captain, but it's hard to say how much of that had anything to do with his captaincy. Did he appear a great leader because he had a team that was easy to lead or did the team appear to be easy to lead because he was a great leader? Border took on a team at it's lowest ebb. So there was little expectation, and he could just go out and lead from the front and when the other players starting getting the performances going the team started finally doing well. But because of where he started, taking a few years to start getting results wasn't an issue. Ponting inherited a champion team and did really well until some of those champions in the team started retiring, and his own performances started going downhill also, and then the team started struggling. So it's hard to say that there was much positive he did as a captain. When he lead a great team he managed to win lots of games. He didn't mould that great team, he inherited it, and he was there as the slide started. Clarke and Taylor would be the two best tactical captains. Out of those two I'd have Clarke on top as the better tactical captain. Lots of people like to hate on Clarke because they just can't get over that he was a bit of a blonde pretty boy and can't get over the fact he dated Lara Bingle. Apparently that's a permanent stain he can't get rid of. People look at the way the team started to implode under Clarke, but I don't know that much of that can be blamed on Clarke. In fact, I think Clarke managed to delay the real implosion of the team by 3-4 years by his captaincy and personal performances during that period. Clearly there's some animosity between Clarke and some other players from that time, but as Johnno pointed out Warney having a "bitter fued" with Steve Waugh, it's not like previous captains were universally loved by their players either.

That is why I put AB at the top. He was the kick starter of Aussie dominance for 15 years

The reason I rate Border so highly was because of his ability to bring the best out of guys who didn't have the X factor, as you've described it. He took a side to England in 1989 that was widely viewed as the worst to tour in a century, yet won the series handsomely, without having a class spinner (ironically, Trevor Hohns was chosen for a few Tests). Along the way, he mentored guys like Taylor, Waugh, Healy, etc in how to play cricket the Australian way, which stood us in good stead for the next 20 years.

How can you say Chappell"s team eg Lillee/Thommo/Rod marsh/Greg Chappell to name a few were low effort..

As per my opinion of them Steve Waugh was the best captain, followed by Ponting, Clarke and Smith. I believe Warner would be a better captain for ODIs and T20s. Shane Warne was unlucky not to become a captain, we have seen his capabilities as a leader for Rajasthan Royals in IPL.

Warney said Alan Border was the best captain and player he played with so that has some credit points, but also mind you he has a bitter feud with steve waugh he won't give him credit points always..

AB had such good mentors as well to develop hard nose approach and he cemented his spot in a test side with legends like Lillee/Thommo/Rodney Marsh/Chappell brothers(no mean feat at all), seriously big egos both him and Kepler Wessells(another hard nose style player like AB) had to learn the ropes from and get accepted in big ego high testosterone aussie dressing room. The current mob outside of say Steve Smith/Dave Warner/Mitchell Starc don't have the same big personalities or star power to win approval from, and those guys were real old school and far more hard nosed than the modern brigade. Throw in a good england side under Botham, a a kiwi side with hadlee, and the rise of Imran khan and kapil dev and sunny gavasker, and the great west indies brigade with clive lloyd/viv and haynes-grennidge/ and the fast bowlers from west indies, AB had some seriously tough cricket era to deals ith and win respect, often playing in sides where the aussies were not the favourites e.g. some lean times , and world series cricket AB had to come in as the new kid playing for the establishment in weakened sides, then the Kim Hughes stuff, AB had to really fight as did steve waugh for respect as he played in that era to. Plus when south africa returned he had to face a good south african side under kepler wessells his old QLD team-mate and aussie teammate. So you connect the dots and all, AB had to face some serious challenges that hardened him immensely as did steve waugh who came on in the scene in 1985. No wonder or no surprise it was steve waugh who made that battle hardened double hundred in 95 with good support from mark waugh, then the 99 world cup. For me AB/Steve Waugh stand out as they faced so much hardship, far more than ponting/clarke/steve smith have ever had to deal with etc... Mark Taylor was a good man manager and communicator and gritty type batter, but perhaps his let down was he wasn't as good a batsmen as AB/Steve Waugh, and his lack of ODI ability counted against him to in the dressing room respect. So for me AB/Steve Waugh 1 then 2, then Tubby at 3.. Shane Warne would have been a good captain but we will never know, and Gilly did well when he stepped in in India, he had a lot of potential and had the same respect as Ponting in the dressing room and was a good communicator. Ponting was hard nosed but he lacked the media savvy and communication skills compared to Michael Clarke or Gilly or Warney... And was less comfortable dealing with the media, where as AB/Steve Waugh/Mark Taylor handled the media mostly well..

Border was great in his backs to the wall personal efforts, but had little leadership and he was an individualist. The thing that brought Australia forward was Bob Simpson, Australia were lucky they had Border as captain because if Bob Simpson had tried to come in with either Ian Chappel or Mark Taylor as captain, then Simpson would have been removed and the team would have gone back to the slack low effort regime they had pre Simpson.

Taylor might have been tactically astute but he was lazy, unfit and ate more than he exercised.. Australia were going well because of Bob Simpson bringing in a new professionalism. If the culture had not been set up before Taylor became captain , Australia would have become a team of Ranatunga's and the the 50 or so runs that Australia earnt extra through fielding and running between the wickets over a test match through being in better shape and better fielding would have been 50 lost due to being in worse shape than rivals. Windies become a great team after Kerry Packer got them a trainer and the Windies were noted as being 20-30 runs better in a one day match in the field in those days.