The leadership of an international cricket team is the recognized designation of utmost importance. In the last couple of decades, we have seen many successful captains like Ricky Ponting of Australia, MS Dhoni from India, and the skipper of Pakistan’s World Cup-winning team, ‘Imran Khan’. Ricky Ponting is considered the most successful skipper in the sphere of international cricket with two World Cup wins. He is closely followed by the captain cool MS Dhoni with solo wins in the World cups of one day international and the T20 along with the ICC Champions Trophy of 2013.
But on the other hand, there were a few unfortunate captains who were very close to achieving the glory for their side but still spared so far from it. Thus beneath is a list of the five most unlucky captains in the history of world cricket.
1. Kane Williamson (NZ).
No one could forget the extravagant grand finale of the 2019 Cricket World Cup where unlucky New Zealand has only sided from the trophy on the basis of boundary counts. Kane Williamson was leading the side of Kiwis and it was the second consecutive appearance of New Zealand in the finals of the World Cup. After the tie of super over the result was declared on the basis of boundaries and England clinched the trophy as they had hit more quick chips. In the finals of ICC T20 World Cup 2021, the scene was pretty similar, the Australians had defeated the Kiwis in a one-sided manner and Williamson again had to face the black defeat in the utmost game of the tournament.
2. Sourav Ganguly (Ind).
The Bengal tiger Sourav Ganguly has also proved unfortunate on many occasions in his reigning five years of leadership. The most notable event among them was the grand finale of the 2003 World Cup, where the Indian side was ruthlessly defeated by the Aussies with a margin of 125 runs. This world cup loss was also a reason that he had to lose his leadership stance to the hands of Rahul Dravid in the year 2005. Due to this Ganguly couldn’t achieve any trophy in ICC events in his whole captaincy career.
3. Mahela Jayawardene (SL).
Mahela Jayawardene stamps his name on the third position in the list as he has to lose his captaincy in a similar way as that of Sourav Ganguly. Sri Lankan team has a great record in the ICC World Cup 2007 where they reached the finals of the tournament but very similar to the case of India they have lost it with the hands of Ricky Ponting leading team Australia. After this disaster, the Sri Lankan cricket board has decided to shuffle the leadership position in the team and the wiki-batter Kumar Sangakkara has been given the most engaged role of the side.
4. Brendon McCullum (NZ).
Brendon McCullum, currently the head coach of the English Men’s test team, faced a Catastrophe in the finals of World Cup 2015 against Australia. McCullum has been leading the side after the departure of the legend Daniel Vettori but the poor voyage of ICC World Cup 2015 has led to their losing his leadership. He is the second Kiwi skipper on the list whose cricketing career has come to the bay after making a blunder at the most crucial stage of the profession as a skipper of the side.
5. Inzamam-ul-Haq (Pak).
Inzamam ul Haq is the lone Pakistan captain in the chronics as the turbulent sail of Pakistan side in the WC 2007 had proved his last mistake. He had already been stranded on the vulnerable verge after the mysterious death of his biggest supporter on the side, Coach Bob Woolmer. And as expected after this devastation the PCB didn’t give him another chance and snatched the captaincy from his hands. Later on, Shahid Afridi was handed over the helm of the team for a long time.
Also Read: 4 Indian Cricketers From WC 2019 Whom You Won’t See In World Cup 2023
