Rating top 10 best captains of all time

9. Arjuna Ranatunga

It often takes a lot of time for the International side to exert its dominance at a global level after earning an official ICC status, but to have won the World Cup inside 14 years of its existence was a feat only Sri Lanka could’ve pulled off. The inspirational leadership of Arjuna Ranatunga made the newbies of cricket fly high sooner than expected and they didn’t take long to reach the pinnacle.

The 1996 World Cup was a huge turning point in their cricket history, which paved way for the next two decades for the side. Ranatunga’s mastermind tactics to send aggressive openers and attack with spin in the early overs proved pretty pivotal as they lifted the trophy beating Australia in Lahore.

Ranatunga was their undisputed leader from 1988 till his final day as an International cricketer in 1999. In the 249 international games he led the team, they won 101 games and had a par win-percentage of 40.56, but the foundation stones he laid helped the game witness a sensational cricketing unit in the coming years.