In the game of cricket, playing at the international level is the biggest honor in a player’s career. Leading your country in international games is the only honor that can trump playing for your nation.
Many Cricket Players won the heart of their fans due to some spectacular performances in their careers. These players consistently outplayed their opponents at the highest level. However, despite being at the top level they never got the chance to lead their sides due to several reasons.
Let us look at the players with the highest number of international matches who could not lead their side:
Muttiah Muralitharan:
The Sri Lankan is arguably the greatest spinner ever to have played the game. However, unfortunately, he was born in an era when the Sri Lankan team was stocked with great leaders. He played under the leadership of Arjun Ranatunga, Marvan Atapattu, Kumar Sangakarra and Mahela Jayawardane to name a few great leaders of the Sri Lankan side.
Murali who grabbed 800 test wickets played 133 test matches without leading his side even once. He is on the 5th number in the list.
VVS Laxman:
VVS Laxman played 134 test matches and was an integral part of the ‘fab four’ of Indian batting in the 2000s. Laxman played a major chunk of his career under the captaincy of Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble who are two of the finest Indian Captains in Test Matches. During the latter half of his career, he played under MS Dhoni who again established himself as one of the greatest test skippers of all time.
Unfortunately, due to the exceptional leadership material around him, VVS Laxman was never even considered for a captaincy role.
Stuart Broad:
The English seamer is arguably one of the best swing bowlers ever. However, he was never acknowledged as a captaincy material in his side. The presence of James Anderson as his new-ball partner throughout his bowling career further dwarfed his leadership skills. The emergence of Alaister Cook, Andrew Strauss, and Joe Root as the abled leader was another reason which never put him into the contention of captaincy. He is still active in test cricket and has featured in 139 test matches. He still has a few years of cricket left in him and might be awarded the challenge of captaincy.
Shane Warne:
Shane Warne had a larger than life character and was never considered as an abled leader. Moreover, he played his initial career under the leadership of Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh who are arguably two of the finest captains in Australian cricket history. When Waugh retired in 2004, Warne could have been considered as a skipper, but he was serving a one-year ban at the moment. Hence, Australian selectors chose the ODI captain Ricky Ponting as the next test skipper who later became one of the finest test captains in history.
However, the case of Shane Warne as a captain is one of the classic cases of ‘what could have been.’ He proved his leadership skills in IPL and established himself as one of the greatest mentors in franchise cricket. He played 145 test matches.
James Anderson:
Anderson is the inarguable leader of England’s bowling. However, the bias towards bowlers as captain is one of the major things which never brought his name into the light as a skipper. He’s played 152 test matches without leading his team even once.
