Written by William Munt sub edited by Braidon Dye
Embed from Getty ImagesA.R. Border in 1987; S.R. Waugh in 1999; R.T. Ponting in 2003 and 2007; and M.J. Clarke in 2015. As a deafening silence descended on the cauldron of Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium, P.J. Cummins etched his name onto this illustrious list of male, Australian World Cup winning captains.
The plaudits queuing up to heap praise on Australia included former England captain and BBC Sport pundit Michael Vaughan, who said: “I have this as one of the real great World Cup victories,” before comparing Cummins’ side to Australia’s all-conquering one of 1999, 2003 and 2007. So, where does Australia’s victory really rank in terms of the ones that came before it?
Considering the location, Australia’s pre-tournament chances, the tournament’s strength, their opponents in the final and their form throughout the tournament, this article will rank each World Cup triumph to decide which really is the greatest of all time.
One of the key factors that made Australia’s victory so impressive was the adverse conditions that they succeeded in. Australia had to overcome their proverbial Mount Everest by translating a formula built for fast, bouncy surfaces onto slow and low sub-continental wickets. By doing so, they became the first team to win a World Cup away from home since 2007, in a triumph only rivalled by Australia in 1987 and Pakistan in 1992.
Going into the tournament, CricViz’s win probability of 15.6% for Australia made them one of the favourites after only India and England. Their ICC world number two ranking further cemented this status and prevented their triumph from ranking as highly as that of India in 1983, Australia in 1987, and Sri Lanka in 1996 for the shock factor.
In terms of tournament strength, the 2023 Cricket World Cup ranks 6th. The presence of just one associate nation, the Netherlands, provided the second strongest pool of teams in tournament history, only for the disappointing on-pitch product of just six ‘close games’ (winning margins of 30 or less runs and three or less wickets). However, every team did win at least one game for the first time since 1992, showcasing the true strength of the teams Australia had to overcome on their journey.
Australia’s victory also ranked highest in terms of the strength of their final opponent and highly in terms of their tournament form. The fact that India won all 10 of their games prior to the final and had won eight of their past nine bilateral series alongside Australia’s tournament win percentage of 81.82% made for a clash of the giants in the final, which saw Travis Head crush the dreams of a billion Indian cricket fans.
Ultimately, Australia’s triumph amidst adverse conditions, strong oppositions and an Indian juggernaut riding the crest of a blue wave will go down in history. However, it is pipped by Australia’s 1987 underdog victory on foreign soil, masterminded by Allan Border.
Despite joining Border, Waugh, Ponting and Clarke in Australia’s fantastic five; Cummins’ also stands alone alongside Border. Both masterminded sides to world cricket’s pinnacle in polar conditions and with sides that were not as strong as the dominant Australian side of the early 2000s. Even though Border’s triumph may just have eclipsed Cummins’, both now bookend cricket’s greatest legacy that relies on Cummins to lead it into a new chapter.
