who is the best captain in world cricket at the momment?

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Finally England have risen from the ashes.

Flemming, full stop.

Has to be Fleming. He makes the best use of limited resources and occasionally manages to win against 'bigger' teams.

It certainly boils down to a two-horse race: Fleming vs. Vaughan. They both bring the same sort of calm confidence to the dressingroom / field and have the knack of getting consistently good performances from players who invariably seem settled, relaxed and clear about how to handle whatever sort of mauling the opposition is trying to dish out.

Both are excellent at preparing for games... but are equally good at taking stock of unexpected developments and adjusting plans accordingly. Neither would, for instance, have set the appalling fields that were so heavilly criticised when Ponting allowed Flintoff his easy century at Trent Bridge and when Flintoff returned the favour to Symonds at Melbourne.

Too many of the others strike me as mere talismen (Flintoff) or as reliant on leading by example (Ponting and Smith): none bar Flemming and Vaughan strike me as warranting (in the manner of Brearley) a place in the team as specialist captains.

There is no "best" captain in world cricket IMO.

None of them are working with the same tools, group of players, expectations etc...

Seen Vaughan and Fleming show average to poor captaincy many times.

For example, what would Vaughan or Fleming, do differently with the West Indies side that Lara or any of the previous incumbents of the last seven years or so have done?

Brearley is the most overrated captain EVER.

And the silly notion of specialist captains should die before it has a chance to take root.

The best teams don't carry people especially their captain.

As for Vaughan, you obviously forget his rank poor captaincy in the ICC Champions Trophy final in 2004.

I cant believe people dont rate Vaughan. He got the England team playing at a level that was beyond them, that was why we won the Ashes. He is aslo tactically sound and a great man manager.

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Mark.

I agree with your opinion about Flintoff and Ponting; this "leading by example" thing does not work. If it did, Tendulkar would have been a great captain for India, which he wasn't. As for Vaughan, I agree that he is the best captain material that England have at the moment, but I don't rate him as high as Fleming as a strategist, at least at ODI level.

On the other hand, Graeme Smith is more than a talisman for South Africa. Some people might find his noisy, gesticulating manner on the field a bit irritating, but that sort of gee-up is just what SA need at the moment. They have a very talented team at both forms of the game, but are all too often let down by a lack of communication (as with Pollock's captaincy) or general lack of self-belief. It is this latter that Smith is trying to bring into the team. I managed to get a copy of the 3-disc promotional DVD of the '438' game from a friend in cricket South Africa; watching & listening to Smith's captaincy and opinions before, during and after that fantastic run chase in Jo'burg made me realise that he was just what Cricket SA needed. I still believe that he can lead them to triumph in the Caribbean.

i used to believe this absolutely (and really still do)

...but ... watching the england test side without vaughan captaining is almost tragic (even though coincedentally they were also without tresco and jones: two top performers)! if ever there was a call for specialist captains - a notion i would protest against - vaughan would probably be used as evidence in favour (in the current context of english test cricket that is!)

'prosper utseya' is the zimbabwe captain btw.

England cant cope without Vaughans captaincy but NZ could cope without Fleming.
What is Vaughans record, when he has come up against Fleming??

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Mark.