Who are the captains, coaches and leaders in cricket, sport, business or any field of life you admire and relate to most in terms of their achievements, respect and what they stand for?
If you’d like to mention why, please do.

Phil Jackson the great NBA Basketball coach. Not only did he win titles he was able to meld a myriad of personalities and egos into a winning organisation.

A club cricket captain I had at Belmont DCC in Newcastle named Steve Clarkson, never the best player in the team and sometimes in fact shouldn’t have held his place in team on form or playing ability. However, he was incredibly well researched in terms of knowing his own players backwards and even more so with the opposition players. His research and knowledge bought him respect from old and young players alike. It was an actual phenomenon if you ask me. He once told me that he considered himself the ‘best ball shiner in the competition’. However his contribution was much deeper. He made each player better and also developed leaders internally. Another great skill to have.

I would like to add a third person, Mrs Narelle Ryall who was my first principal when I came into the teaching profession. Her ability to promote from within without fear that it would negatively affect her own leadership position was unrivalled. I worked under this lady for five years and in that time she was able to have five people from within promoted to principal at another school and an incredible 12 classroom teachers promoted to Assistant Principal at either her school or others. Her trail would now extend to over 20 principals coming out of her system that started as classroom teachers and this is since 2007. A wonderful leader who trusted but busted you if you broke that trust.

Francois Pienaar - united the country and won our first World Cup.
FW De Klerk- took the hard road of reform in South Africa and released Mr Mandela knowing he was going to lose the next election by doing so. How many politicians today would do that?

Cricket wise always loved captain Grumpy Allan Border. My hero

Wayne Bennett

Very impressed with Brendon McCullum, both as New Zealand Z skipper and what he’s doing now with England. I like his creativity to look at an issue/challenge from a new angle and to then pursue the pathway with clarity and conviction.

One from the past…Neale Fraser, the long term Australian Davis Cup captain from the 1970’s to the 90’s. Got great results from teams that often didn’t have the highest ranked players but drove them through old fashioned values of mateship and hard work.

Dirk Wellham as NSW Cricket captain. He was always 2 hours ahead of the play and always tried to win. There were 9 Test players in the team who were all headstrong and he held the team together.
Made games fun and kept it moving forward.
Wonderful person on and off the field.

Trent Robinson from the Sydney Roosters and Tom Harley at the Swans, former Geelong premiership winning captain

I have loved listening to Billy Slater recently as Queensland State of Origin coach.

Craig Tilley - CEO of Tennis Australia is quite excellent as well

Ricky Ponting
Cameron Smith (NRL)

John Terry and Paolo Maldini

Cricket Captain - Mike Lucas Norths Brisbane. Knew how to treat different people as to their strengths and weaknesses and tactically outstanding

Cricket Coach - Geoff Trivett Valleys Brisbane. Could tack a rag tag mob of kids, veterans and State players and bind them all together as one to win a premiership that only we believed could be done

Leader - Nelson Mandela, nuff said

Being an avid Rugby League supporter the four coaches I look back on are Norm Provan, the old school Captain/Coach from the St George days a true leader. Then Jack Gibson, didn’t say much but he got the best out of players similar to Wayne Bennett & a great man manager then Craig Bellamy who got players who struggled at other clubs & he’d get them to another level with self belief.
As a Captain Ian Chappell was my favourite as a young fella growing up & although he wasn’t officialdom’s favourite his players loved him & listening to Dad & his stories of Keith Miller Captaining NSW he was very unique in his style but the players loved him & he didn’t lose to many when skippering NSW.

Ricky Ponting for me. He was such a competitor and never took a backwards step on the field.
Even now in his commentary he just knows the game in such depth.
Love listening to him in commentary now days but loved watching him lead the team around the park back in the day.

As a kid growing up I loved listening to Richie Benaud and his insights on the game. I have since read a number of his books and find what he has to say about captaincy and leadership resonates with me.

Regarding other codes, Jack Gibson was one of the greats. This for me was my favourite quote from the super coach "Winning starts on Monday, not 10 minutes before the game. It's a confidence all week long, and it's confidence for the month before that. People can't get motivated on a five-minute speech before they run out on the football paddock. It's something you have to wake up with knowing that your preparation is right. Having the confidence that whatever comes up you are ready."

Jack Gibson is the greatest "coach" that I have ever encountered. With a paucity of words he could communicate with such clarity. You always knew what was expected of you, and it eliminated any excuse making.

In having a Kiwi bias, the following leaders have made a huge impact on their sporting code.

Sir Wayne Smith - As a player Wayne played for Canterbury/ All Blacks and was part of the winning world cup team of 2011 and 2015. Most recently he was appointed coach of the Women Silver Ferns team who were under dogs in the recent world cup but came together as a united group to beat the favourites England in front of a capacity crowd at Eden Park.

Another Kiwi who has helped change the game of cricket with his aggressive style of play and captaining is Brendan McCullum who has captained New Zealand to a World Cup final, played in the IPL, score a triple ton at test level and now coach of the England Test Cricket cricket team.

Sorting legends kids look up to these leaders to see what they do next in their lives and aspire to be like them

Ange Postecoglou - determined and principled

Such a broad question. The changes that occurred post “Kerry Packers” involvement in cricket are a highlight that involved 3 key people. Greg Chappell, Allan Border and Bobby Simpson who guided cricket from a 2 day a week “sport” to a 6 day a week “business”. Each one of them had a key role in changing the strategy and culture of cricket. There were many others who helped them.
I was fortunate to play both cricket and baseball. Getting caught in the shift of baseball from winter to summer…while studying.
One thing has stood with me over the years was a comment made by John “Nooky” Swans about “not being able to feed his family cricket or baseballs and respecting those with the degrees”. It was tough for those following their sporting dreams prior to shift of sport to a business focus and ability to make a living.
I was fortunate to live in the USA for 27 years working on global business transformations and met many that you learned a lot from.
Wishing Allan good health as he was a true leader through the time of change in cricket.