ALLAN Border’s contribution to Australian cricket is almost impossible to measure.

Such is his nature that Allan Border does not notice let alone complain that the true worth of his service to Australian cricket is often unrecognised, unwritten and undiscussed.

So to this end it is hardly surprising that the 25th anniversary of his first appearance as his country’s 38th captain went unnoticed this week.

This is not acceptable. Attention should always be drawn to December 7, 1984 when Border succeeded his mate Kim Hughes as skipper against the West Indies in Adelaide.

It is a date of the utmost significance for it marks the beginning of what is best termed “the age of stability” in Australian cricket.

It is much too easy following the heady successes of the past 20 years under Border, Mark Taylor, Steve Waugh, Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist to ignore, even forget, the confusion, controversy and tensions which so characterised Australian cricket in 1984.

Despite some initial misgivings and an anxious and sometimes grumpy first two years in office Border prospered to become a very fine captain and led Australia on a record 93 occasions over the next nine years and three months.

Aside from his enormous contributions as one of the greatest and most courageous batsmen of any era (11,174 runs at 50.56 with 27 hundreds and 63 fifties) his legacy was the provision of certainty, unity and a collective confidence at a time of great uncertainty — a bequest from which Australian cricket in general and Ponting and his men in particular continue to benefit.

Indeed, it is remarkable that Australia has had just four captains in 25 years and there is no doubt that the many successes of this period have been a direct consequence of the impressive stability achieved and maintained at just about every level of Australian cricket. There is no Read more…

Administrator Australia Adam Gilchrist, Alec Stewart, Allan Border, Allan Lamb, Andy Flower, Aravinda De Silva, Arjuna Ranatunga, Blogs.CMDN.com, Chris Cowdrey, Clive Lloyd, Coney, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, David Gower, David Houghton, Desmond Haynes, Dilip Vengsarkar, Duleep Mendis, Geoff Howarth, Gordon Greenidge, Graham Gooch, Hansie Cronje, Ian Smith, Imran Khan, Javed Miandad, Jeff Crowe, John Emburey, John Wright, Kapil Dev, Ken Rutherford, Kepler Wessels, Kris Srikkanth, Mark Taylor, Martin Crowe, Mike Atherton, Mike Gatting, Mohammad Azharuddin, Ranjan Madugalle, Ravi Shastri, Richie Richardson, Ricky Ponting, Salim Malik, Steve Waugh, Sunil Gavaskar, Viv Richards, Waqar Younis, Wasim Akram, Zaheer Abbas

In mountaineering they are known as the 8000ers – the fourteen summits in the world which rise to more than eight thousand metres. Seventeen people have managed to make it to the top of all of these peaks – no mean achievement.

The Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings have a similar threshold of greatness – the achieving of 800 points in either the batting or bowling tables. Less rare than the mountaineering achievement above, these players still form a select band as only 43 batsmen and 26 bowlers have attained this level of success in One Day International cricket.

First, we need to examine what 800 points in the Ratings actually means? The first batsman to achieve this mark was Greg Chappell back in December 1980 when his innings of 48 against New Zealand at Melbourne saw him rise to 803 points. His Australian team-mate Dennis Lillee had the honour of being the first ODI bowler to reach this level – on 31 January 1981 – when he took two for 25 in eight overs also against the Kiwis at the M.C.G.

As more matches have been played, naturally more players have achieved 800 points. The ‘golden age’ of ODI batting came in early February 1985 when there were a record nine batsmen above this level: Viv Richards, Zaheer Abbas, Allan Lamb, David Gower, Kepler Wessels, Read more…

Administrator CMDN.com Allan Lamb, Blogs.CMDN.com, Bob Willis, Clive Lloyd, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, David Gower, Dennis Lillee, Desmond Haynes, Ewen Chatfield, Geoff Lawson, Gordon Greenidge, Greg Chappell, ICC, Javed Miandad, Joel Garner, Kapil Dev, Kepler Wessels, Malcolm Marshall, MCG, Michael Holding, Player Rankings, Richard Hadlee, Viv Richards, Zaheer Abbas