Allan Border

Toughness seems to be the prevalent trait among Australians. However, none utilized it better than Allan Border. His captaincy dragged Australia from the lowest ebb, transformed them into world beaters and maintained such an a degree of pressure that the term mental disintegration came to be associated with the Australian way of playing.

Border's arrival on the Australian cricket scene came when there was turmoil. Many of the Australian players had opted to play in the World Series Championships organized by Kerry Packer in 1977. The task of rebuilding Australian cricket was not going to be easy.

His first Test century was a bitter-sweet one. In the first Test against Pakistan in 1979, Australia needed 382 runs to clinch the match. Border notched his first ton as Australia reached 305/3. However, Sarfraz Nawaz's burst of seven wickets for one run triggered a collapse as Pakistan bundled Australia out for 310 to help them win by 71 runs. However, in 1980, Border became the first and only player to go past 150 in both the innings when he smashed an unbeaten 150 and 153 against Pakistan at Lahore .

Border stamped his class in the 1981 Ashes series in which he ended with 533 runs at an average of 59.2, including three centuries. However, the series was defined by some heroic all-around performances by Ian Botham as England clinched the series 3-1. The series was termed as 'Botham's Ashes', but Border was named as Wisden Cricketer of the year in 1981 for his contributions in that series. Following Hughes' resignation, Border was given captaincy under the most difficult circumstances. Later on, he admitted that he was a reluctant captain.

Australia still did not see results go their way. They lost a series against New Zealand at home for the first time and they suffered another thrashing at the hands of the West Indies. Along the way, Border was milking runs in all conditions.

In the 2nd Test of the 1984 series at Port of Spain in Trinidad, Border withstood some ferocious bowling as he stroked 98 and 100, remaining unbeaten on both the occasions. Australia had salvaged a draw and Border had made his first statement of intent. The West Indies had conquered everybody in their path but they could not get the better of Border.

The 1986 Test match between India and Australia at Chennai was the starting point of Australia's renaissance in Cricket. Border grafted his way to 106 but his comments to spur Dean Jones on was memorable. When Jones was suffering from heat exhaustion, Border came up to him and offered no sympathy. He told him harshly that he wanted Jones to tough it out and not be a weakling. Jones went onto make a remarkable 210 and the match entered into cricketing folklore as the second tied Test match in history. The 1987 World Cup win completed the turn-around for Border and Australia. In the final against England in Kolkata, he turned the match around with the ball. Mike Gatting, the England skipper, was going along nicely when he decided to play the reverse sweep. It resulted in a simple catch to the keeper and England never recovered from it. They lost the final by seven runs to hand Australia their first World Cup win.

Along the way, Border showed that he was an able all-rounder as well. In the 4th Test at the SCG in 1988, Border comes onto bowl with West Indies at 144/1. With his accurate left arm spinners, he ran through the West Indies batting as he snapped up 7/46. He contributed 75 and picked up 4/50 in the second innings to pick up his only 10 wicket haul in Tests. In the second innings, Border hit the winning runs to cap off a memorable match for him.

In a Test match against New Zealand at Christchurch in 1993, he went past Sunil Gavaskar's mark of 10122 runs to become the highest run-getter in Tests. He smashed a double century at Leeds as Australia routed England 4-0 in the 1993 Ashes. However, if there is one regret in Border's captaincy, it was the fact that he never managed to conquer the West Indies.

He played his final Test against South Africa and became a selector after-wards. Such has been his contribution to Australian cricket that his name stands for excellence. Every year, players are awarded the Allan Border medal for being the best.

He has a whole host of records that has now been surpassed. He played in the most number of Test (156), scored the most number of runs (11,174 runs), featured in the most consecutive Tests (153), captained the side 93 times which is a world record. Allan Border is the colossus that has given Australia a solid foundation for long term success.

By Siddharth Vishwanathan