You will be known for the rest of your life if you are a captain and your side wins a World Cup. That is the appeal of the World Cup.
After the Olympics, it is the next major thing in sports. The most significant cricket competition is the ICC Cricket World Cup.
The captains of the Cricket World Cup winners are listed below fairly. Each leader of a team that won the World Cup was a gentleman in cricket, and they are all still around now.
| Name of the Captain | Country | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Clive Lloyd | West Indies | 1975 |
| Clive Lloyd | West Indies | 1979 |
| Kapil Dev | India | 1983 |
| Allan Border | Australia | 1987 |
| Imran Khan | Pakistan | 1992 |
| Arjuna Ranatunga | Sri Lanka | 1996 |
| Steve Waugh | Australia | 1999 |
| Ricky Ponting | Australia | 2003 |
| Ricky Ponting | Australia | 2007 |
| Mahendra Singh Dhoni | India | 2011 |
| Michael Clarke | Australia | 2015 |
| Eoin Morgan | England | 2019 |
Let’s have a look at all of the Cricket World Cup Winner’s captains and how hard they worked to make their country proud.
1. Clive Lloyd (1975 & 1979)
The native of Guyana led the West Indies to back-to-back World Cup victories. Since they were the most competitive team in the 1970s and 1980s, he had a team that every captain dreams of having. But every ship needs a captain, and this Caribbean ship’s captain was Clive Hubert Lloyd.
The West Indies were the tournament favourites in 1979, and they continued to rule the competition. With the help of everyone’s combined efforts, Lloyd and his team were able to win their second consecutive World Cup.
2. Kapil Dev (1983)
When Team India began their World Cup campaign in 1983, they were the underdogs. The tournament’s captain was Kapil Dev. Nobody knew the man from Chandigarh was destined to lift the trophy at Lord’s.
Kapil Dev’s heroics as a batsman can be seen in the match against Zimbabwe, when India was in serious difficulty with a score of 17-5. The captain then arrived and struck a scorching 175 not out to control the innings and give India the best chance to win.
However, once more, cricket pundits dubbed the West Indies as the favorites. They had reached the finals for the third time in a row, and India had done so for the first time.
3. Allan Border (1987)
Border and his side faced many ups and downs before arriving in India for the World Cup, as some older players retired and they had a young 1987 World Cup roster that was unpredictable.
The favourites were India and Pakistan, but fate had other intentions. The finals pitted archrivals Australia and England against each other.
Despite a lacklustre World Cup, a spectacular masterstroke in the finals propelled Australia to World Championship glory for the first time. England appeared to easily pursue the target of 254, but Allan Border, a part-time spinner, threw himself into the attack, which was unusual.
Border’s move, however, proved to be gold, as he got the inexperienced batsman Mike Gatting out, resulting in the final collapse of England’s innings. As a result, Australia triumphed by seven runs, becoming the third team to lift the trophy.
4. Imran Khan (1992)
Every Pakistani recognises the name of Imran Khan. He is Pakistan’s best captain and all-rounder in history. Imran Khan served as the country’s captain in 1992, when it earned its lone World Cup victory.
He was well-known for his motivating abilities and lectures to his colleagues. He dubbed his crew the “cornered tigers,” yet they delivered like roaring tigers.
Experts claimed that if Imran had not been the captain or a member of the team, Pakistan would not have won the 1992 World Cup. He was behaving more like a true batsman than a bowler.
He hit an enthralling 37-ball 60 to help Pakistan defeat New Zealand in the semi-finals. In the finals against England, he top-scored with 72 runs, helping Pakistan to 249 and their bowlers to all-out England for 227.
5. Arjuna Ranatunga (1996)
Arjuna Ranatunga is recognised as one of cricket’s most combative captains. He was a centurion on the night of the final match against Australia in Lahore in 1996.
He put up an unbeatable squad that could triumph over any foe on any given day. The team had talented bowlers, astute fielders, and aggressive batsmen, all of whom helped them win the World Cup.
Arjuna Ranatunga was a motivating and clever captain who gave openers full permission to destroy the bowlers and created solid partnerships with middle-order batting. After a long chase with Australia, Sri Lanka easily defeated them in the championship match.
6. Steve Waugh (1999)
Steve Waugh was the team’s new captain at the time, and they travelled to England hoping to win for the second time.
Australia didn’t get off to a good start in the competition, losing the first three games. But as the competition went on, there was no turning back.
In that 1999 World Cup, Australia’s best batsman was Steve Waugh. He delivered the tournament’s best innings against South Africa in a Super Six stage match, scoring 120 off 110 balls to arrange a 272-run chase that was outstanding in every sense. They easily defeated Pakistan in the finals, scoring 132 runs.
7. Ricky Ponting (2003 & 2007)
Australia’s golden age began with the 1999 World Cup victory. After Steve Waugh retired from limited-overs cricket, Ricky Ponting was named captain of the powerful Australian squad.
He has two World Cups under his belt (the 2003 World Cup and the 2007 World Cup), in which his team never lost a single match. They were simply untouchable at the time, as was Ponting’s captaincy.
In 2003, Australia faced India in the final, which was also a promising team, but the Aussies were far superior to the Indians, and India never had a chance to win.
The skipper destroyed the Indian bowling attack, scoring 140 runs in 121 balls to help Australia achieve a huge total of 359 in 50 overs. Australia won the match by 125 runs and grabbed the trophy for the second time in a row and the third time overall.
The same thing happened in 2007. They had created a habit of winning and didn’t lose a single match, winning all of them handily. They won the World Cup for the fourth time, giving them a hat trick.
8. Mahendra Singh Dhoni (2011)
India’s success can be attributed to one of the world’s best cricketers, Mahendra Singh Dhoni. In 2011, India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh hosted the World Cup, giving all Indian fans hope that their country would win the trophy for the second time in 28 years.
Dhoni had been preparing his team for the World Cup for the past four years and had assembled a fantastic squad. Even though India lost to South Africa and the match was tied with England, the hope of capturing the crown remained.
The former Indian captain decided to bat at No. 5 in the finals, where the seasoned Yuvraj Singh was in position. Taking a chance on the spinners was a risk.
Dhoni hit 91 off 78 balls in the company of Gautam Gambhir, who made a fantastic 97 runs, and later with Yuvraj Singh. Dhoni’s winning six over long-on remains one of Indian cricket’s greatest moments.
9. Michael Clarke (2015)
Michael Clarke announced his retirement by declaring that the most recent World Cup match would be his last. He signed out with a dream come true, capturing the title for his country in his own backyard.
Until the 2015 World Cup, Australian cricket was in transition, with all senior players leaving and the skipper unable to win matches with the new team. But they looked different in the World Cup, where they controlled practically every encounter.
The united efforts of all 15 members enabled the team to win the World Cup for the fifth time in a row and wave farewell to their captain.
10. Eoin Morgan (2019)
Eoin Morgan led England to their first World Cup victory in 2019, defeating New Zealand in one of the best World Cup finals ever, which went to the Super Over and ended in a tie, with the winner determined solely on the boundaries scored.
England had a disastrous 2015 season and had undergone reorganisation, with Irish-born Eoin Morgan at the helm. England had assembled a roster of specialists capable of defeating any team on any given day.
Ben Stokes of England was the star of the show, and players like Joe Root, Johnny Bairstow, Jason Roy, and Jofra Archer—who was also the team’s x-factor—ably supported him throughout the match.
England will now strive to improve and construct an even more potent outfit for the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup scheduled in India.
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