ranking current test captains

there seem to be some pretty useful test captains around at the moment...thinking about the contributions they make to their team and whether their team performs above or below expectation...

For me Miserable Haq is top of the pile...captaining the stannies is a challenge at the best of times but with no matches at home, home being unstable and the recent stench of corruption he is doing the job with aplomb...the stannies are competitive..

McCallum might end up being the worst but it is too early, they have been playing the best team and is playing with a dog eared deck missing a few cards.

Dhoni is probably the most disappointing...fails to marshall a talented but ill disciplined team well eg here last summer or against the poms

Dhoni is a fantastic captain and should be allowed to continue for another 10 years ...

now that is downright mean...but I do like your thinking

Les Mis I reckon has been the standout

Miserable Hack ... I like it.

lardbucket wrote:Miserable Hack ... I like it.

I think we have a runner.

lardbucket wrote:Miserable Hack ... I like it.

sounds like Cammie Whyte

Apart from Clarke (and, at times, Smith) they're all identikit safety first yawners.

embee wrote:

lardbucket wrote:Miserable Hack ... I like it.

sounds like Cammie Whyte

horace wrote:there seem to be some pretty useful test captains around at the moment...thinking about the contributions they make to their team and whether their team performs above or below expectation...

For me Miserable Haq is top of the pile...captaining the stannies is a challenge at the best of times but with no matches at home, home being unstable and the recent stench of corruption he is doing the job with aplomb...the stannies are competitive..

McCallum might end up being the worst but it is too early, they have been playing the best team and is playing with a dog eared deck missing a few cards.

Dhoni is probably the most disappointing...fails to marshall a talented but ill disciplined team well eg here last summer or against the poms

Surprised you haven't mentioned Cook - many a decent skipper has failed to win a test series in India.

Tut. Cook is as vanilla as chantilly cream.

Cook is advantaged by having Cook in the side

G.Wood wrote:Cook is advantaged by having Cook in the side

That's just a cheap shot at Darren Sammy.

G.Wood wrote:Cook is advantaged by having Cook in the side

Michael Clarke anyone?

that is balanced by having the Reinventor in the side

Clarke is a very positive captain, but he was very close to throwing away the Sydney test with his declaration. Luckily for him Sri Lanka imploded.

no doubt cook, pup, sammy and smith are excellent captains, however Sammy aside the others have something to work with...and in Smith's case a damend good team...pup and cook both lead from the front in pretty average teams where they are clearly the best performing players..

Miserable has made the best of a near impossible situation

Misbah and Smith are at the top for mine.

Both captains have done an amazing job! It is hard to say who is better because they are both quite different from each other, it is almost like comparing Viv Richards's batting to that of Sunny Gavaskar.

smith has class batsmen, a great all rounder and a top pace attack at his disposal...his job has been easier with the main task having been dealing with the teams legendary mental softness

horace wrote:smith has class batsmen, a great all rounder and a top pace attack at his disposal...his job has been easier with the main task having been dealing with the teams legendary mental softness

and the political interference.

taipan wrote:

G.Wood wrote:Cook is advantaged by having Cook in the side

Michael Clarke anyone?

If you believe sections of the Aussie press he can't do a thing wrong. His danger will be trying to be too clever by half. It's ok making cutish declarations against the depleted Windies but there's a time and place for this. He also should calm down with some of the outlandish statements such as 'Punter will make a triple ton' as he was about to take on the saffies.

heard on the radio there was some fallout between pup and Paris after the sydney test...pup wanted the team to go and party on in James packer's yacht...huss wanted a beer in the sheds and then a night at a pub...some of the players went with pup, the rest with Huss...shame if true

horace wrote:heard on the radio there was some fallout between pup and Paris after the sydney test...pup wanted the team to go and party on in James packer's yacht...huss wanted a beer in the sheds and then a night at a pub...some of the players went with pup, the rest with Huss...shame if true

Sounds like pups don't change their stripes either.

hmmn...he was the innocent party in the serbo chokarian incident if that is what you are referring to

horace wrote:smith has class batsmen, a great all rounder and a top pace attack at his disposal...his job has been easier with the main task having been dealing with the teams legendary mental softness

Smith has kept the team near the top for several years now and since about 2006 they keep getting better every year.

Misbah on the other hand had a weird kind of an advantage, it was an advantage of a team that was desperate for redemption. After the Lords test match in 2010 Pakistan cricket was at the bottom of the pile, there was severe lack of trust associated towards Pakistan cricket and with the loss of two potentially great fast bowlers Pakistan cricket was predicted to vanish for a few years. Even Ian Chappell( my favorite commentator and BIG fan of Pak cricket) wanted the team to be banned due to suspicions of match fixings.

The situation was so dire that the only way the PAK players were to regain some credibility was to never lose a test match again and under Misbah's captain they have ALMOST done just that (9 wins and 2 defeats).

PlanetPakistan wrote:
Smith has kept the team near the top for several years now and since about 2006 they keep getting better every year.

Conversely you could deride that fact that, with the talent at his disposal, he's only managed to take them to the top of the tree for about nine months of his tenure. One could argue that he could've done better.