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Captains courageous

Mohandas Menon

 Clive Lloyd
What does Clive Lloyd, Kapil Dev, Allan Border, Imran Khan and Arjuna Ranatunga have in common? They are all World Cup-winning captains for their repective countries.

Let's look at how the men who have led their countries in the World Cup have performed, with both bat and ball.

 Imran Khan
To Pakistan's Imran Khan goes the distinction of captaining his side in the most number of matches in World Cup competition. However, Clive Lloyd of the West Indies has won the maximum number of matches -- 15. Lloyd also, to date, remains the only captain to have won the World Cup on two occasions (in 1975 and 1979).

Table A provides the list of captains with most matches and their respective results. From this list, it will be noticed that India's Mohammad Azharuddin has captained his team in maximum matches without winning the Cup. He is followed by West Indian Richie Richardson (14 matches) and Sri Lankan Duleep Mendis (12).

 Arjuna Ranatunga
Sri Lanka's World Cup-winning captain Arjuna Ranatunga has led his side in only six matches. Ranatunga has the unique distinction of winning all the six World Cup matches he led in, thus being the only captain to date with a 100% win record.

Imran Khan has the unique distinction of topping both the run and wicket aggregates as captain in the World Cup. Imran has scored 615 runs (avg 38.44) and has captured 24 wickets (avg 19.71) in 22 matches. Tables B and C provides the details.

The 158 World Cup matches have produced 47 captains. As batsmen, they have scored 8590 runs at an average of 36.71 with seven hundreds and sixty-two fifties. The highest individual score as captain has been made by West Indian Viv Richards, who scored 181 against Sri Lanka at Karachi in 1987.

Twenty-three captains have had a bowl in the World Cup. They have in all captured 114 wickets at an average of 31.11, and a strike-rate of 47.32 and economy-rate of 65.75 (or 3.95 runs per over). Kapil Dev's 5-43 against Australia at Nottingham in 1983 remains the only five-wkt haul by a captain in the World Cup.

TABLE A: WORLD CUP CAPTAINS IN MOST MATCHES

R E S U L T T O S S
Captain For M W L D T %W/P W L %W/P
Imran Khan Pak 22 14 8 0 0 63.64 11 11 50.00
CH Lloyd WI 17 15 2 0 0 88.24 9 8 52.94
AR Border Aus 16 11 5 0 0 68.75 9 7 56.25
M Azharuddin Ind 15 6 8 1 0 40.00 7 8 46.67
Kapil Dev Ind 15 11 4 0 0 73.33 6 9 40.00
RB Richardson WI 14 7 7 0 0 50.00 5 9 35.71
LRD Mendis SL 12 1 11 0 0 8.33 6 6 50.00
  Best for other countries :
MD Crowe NZ 9 7 2 0 0 77.78 5 4 55.56
KC Wessels SA 9 5 4 0 0 55.56 4 5 44.44
MW Gatting Eng 8 5 3 0 0 62.50 3 5 37.50
GA Gooch Eng 8 5 2 1 0 62.50 5 3 62.50
DL Houghton Zim 8 1 7 0 0 12.50 4 4 50.00

TABLE B : HIGHEST RUN AGGREGATES BY CAPTAINS IN THE WORLD CUP

Captain For M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 0
Imran Khan Pak 22 19 3 615 102* 38.44 1 4 1
M Azharuddin Ind 15 13 1 475 93 39.58 - 5 2
MD Crowe NZ 9 9 5 456 100* 114.00 1 4 -
Kapil Dev Ind 15 13 5 455 175* 56.88 1 1 -
CH Lloyd WI 17 11 2 393 102 43.67 1 2 -
IVA Richards WI 6 6 0 391 181 65.17 1 3 -
RB Richardson WI 14 14 3 368 93* 33.45 - 2 -
MW Gatting Eng 8 8 1 354 60 50.57 - 3 -
GM Turner NZ 4 4 2 333 171* 166.50 2 - -
KC Wessels SA 9 9 2 313 85 44.71 - 3 -

TABLE C : HIGHEST WICKET AGGREGATES BY CAPTAINS IN THE WORLD CUP

Captain For M B Md R W Ave Best 5 4 SR ER
Imran Khan Pak 22 661 8 473 24 19.71 4/37 - 2 27.54 71.56
Kapil Dev Ind 15 876 19 504 17 29.65 5/43 1 - 51.53 57.53
RGD Willis Eng 7 442 19 206 11 18.73 4/42 - 1 40.18 46.61
Asif Iqbal Pak 5 354 5 215 10 21.50 4/56 - 1 35.40 60.73
AR Border Aus 16 276 0 219 7 31.29 2/27 - - 39.43 79.35
DAG Fletcher Zim 6 301 5 221 7 31.57 4/42 - 1 43.00 73.42
M Odumbe Ken 6 257 6 187 6 31.17 3/15 - - 42.83 72.76
AJ Traicos Zim 6 348 2 218 6 36.33 2/27 - - 58.00 62.64
SW Lubbers Holl 4 216 0 187 5 37.40 3/48 - - 43.20 86.57

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