Sport's Greatest Captain

[Tal]

Team sports require leadership not just in the dressing room, but on the field of battle. Sometimes, the team runs itself through individual greatness or a lack of competition. But often it's a person wearing an armband that brings players together, into line and delivers the message that's needed to achieve success. Not all great captains are on winning sides, but help maximise the team's potential. Some lead with words, others by example.

So, who is your greatest captain? Some to get you started...

Richie McCaw, the All Blacks' world cup winning skipper, one of the outstanding players of his generation who commands respect from everyone on the pitch



Alan Hanson, Liverpool's legendary football captain, who led not just a team to European success but a city in mourning after the Heysel and Hillsborough disasters.



Sir Viv Richards, who lost none of his fifty tests as captain of the dominant West Indies cricket team

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Tony Jacklin, the most successful Ryder Cup captain of all time



How about Lou "Iron Horse" Gehrig, who captained the New York Yankees to three consecutive world series titles from 1936 and six in total? He set the record of 2,130 consecutive games (a record which stood until 1995, if you please), picked up multiple awards but was not the team's best player (he played behind Babe Ruth). His was the first jersey ever to be retired.

[tikay]

Don't know too much about Rugby Union, but in his pomp, during the 2003 (?) World Cup, this man seemed to be a wonderful inspiration, & a man who led from the front. He did everything specified in Tal's opening para.

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[tikay]

It is now unthinkable that, in our lifetime, England won the Football World Cup.

Bobby was calm personified, & the team revolved around him. Never rushed, hardly ever went to ground, inspired his team.

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[TightEnd]

all the names above are great captains obv.

but its massively skewed by who you captain.

if richie mccaw was fijian and winning 1 game in 3 and never getting close to a world cup?

he needs the talent around him to captain


viv richards and clive lloyd?

where are they without holding, roberts, marshall and garner and with 4 medium pacers trundling down on flat wickets?





so give me leaders who elevate teams who are not the best in their sport at the time to winning when they shouldn't.....


give me this man

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i quote

"Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting led Australia through a period of utter domination of world cricket through the 1990s and 2000s but none of that would have been possible without Border. Inheriting a side in utter disarray in the mid-1980s, by the time Border had retired in 1994 Australia were playing the brand of dogged, determined cricket that has brought them so much success since. The Baggy Green are made in his image."

[Longines]

Fails the Tighty test in that he was captaining a fairly good team to begin with but still a heck of a leader:

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[Karabiner]

Mike Brearly was a way better captain than he was a cricketer.

Does that qualify?

[Ironside]

Willie Miller , how on earth he managed to get a team of journeyman pros to win the cup winners cup and the super cup I have no idea

[booder]

Mike Brearly was a way better captain than he was a cricketer.

Does that qualify?

Was going to put Brearly also, top class captain.

[arbboy]

Willie Miller , how on earth he managed to get a team of journeyman pros to win the cup winners cup and the super cup I have no idea

Not entirely sure that Aberdeen team was full of journeymen!  Half the team were mainstays in Scotland's last great national team which routinely got to WC finals.  Also there was the little factor of a super hungry Sir Alex.

Good shout though.  All my family are from Aberdeen and they have always been my Scottish team.  Been to Pitt numerous times on summer holidays as a kid just after the era you were talking about.

[celtic]

Willie Miller , how on earth he managed to get a team of journeyman pros to win the cup winners cup and the super cup I have no idea

Not entirely sure that Aberdeen team was full of journeymen!  Half the team were mainstays in Scotland's last great national team which routinely got to WC finals.  Also there was the little factor of a super hungry Sir Alex. 

Good shout though.

Billy McNeill >>>>> willie Miller.

[arbboy]

Going back to Tighty's good captain's on shit teams i always thought Naseer and Atherton were two really good captains who just had no talent on their respective test teams at the time.

Martin Johnson though is the pick for me (the coach was a big part of the plan as well).  They had no business rocking up on the other side of the world and winning that world cup with the sqaud they had talent wise.  Johnson and Woodward literally got every player in that squad to perform to their max for the 2 years leading up to that WC and squeezed every ounce of effort/talent out of every player.  Woodward changed the whole training culture around Rugby from the sport turning pro and Johnson is/was a huge fan of NFL training methods to give his team relatively large training advances over their rivals.  Johnson would have been in no part hugely responsible for 'selling' these new training techniques/nutrition etc to 'old school rugby players' used to training twice a week after work and having a few pints a few times a week on top.

[ruud]

Francois Pienaar - inspired a disjointed team to respect their jersey again and beat one of the greatest all-blacks teams of all time to win a World Cup on home soil

[TightEnd]

Francois Pienaar - inspired a disjointed team to respect their jersey again and beat one of the greatest all-blacks teams of all time to win a World Cup on home soil

every name mentioned in the thread is good. Pienaar is a good shout too, had a significance as captain that went beyond sport

[arbboy]

Vinny Jones?  Proper old school non PC methods that wouldn't be allowed in today's dressing rooms but he certainly was the leader of a gang of players which punched well above their weight.

[superwomble]

Vinny Jones?  Proper old school non PC methods that wouldn't be allowed in today's dressing rooms but he certainly was the leader of a gang of players which punched well above their weight.

Was just about to mention this man:

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Still can't believe we beat that 80's Liverpool team, what a day!