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Captains With Most Wins In ICC Champions Trophy History

Aakash Saini∙ Updated: Jan 8 2025, 10:45 PM

Captains with most wins in ICC Champions Trophy history [Source: @BCCI/x]Captains with most wins in ICC Champions Trophy history [Source: @BCCI/x]

The ICC Champions Trophy is set to grace the cricketing arena once again after a long gap of eight years. Across the tournament’s 26-year-old history, this multi-nation ODI event has turned out to be a litmus test for captains, with only a selected few managing to rise above their peers to lift the coveted trophy at the winner’s podium.

Celebrating the legacy of the ICC Champions Trophy ahead of the upcoming 2025 event, here we take a look at captains who have recorded the highest number of wins in the history of the competition.

5. MS Dhoni – 6 wins

MS Dhoni led Team India in the 2009 and 2013 Champions Trophy events in South Africa and England respectively. While a washout against Australia hampered India’s 2009 ambitions, Dhoni maintained an unbeaten record in 2013 to lift the coveted trophy in Edgbaston, Birmingham.

Overall, the legendary wicketkeeper-batter recorded six wins and sustained just one defeat from eight games as captain of the Indian cricket team across both tournaments. Notably, MS Dhoni holds the highest win percentage among all captains (more than three wins), that of 85.71 percent, in the history of Champions Trophy.

4. Sourav Ganguly – 7 wins

Under the leadership of Sourav Ganguly, Team India registered seven wins and suffered just two defeats from 11 Champions Trophy matches, with the remaining two ending up as no-results. He led the ‘Men in Blue’ into the finals of the 2000 Knockout Trophy where they lost to New Zealand in Nairobi.

A couple of years later, Ganguly’s India shared the 2002 Champions Trophy title with hosts Sri Lanka after the final was washed out due to rains in Colombo. Under his leadership, India secured another win from two games of the 2004 event in England. Sourav Ganguly eventually concluded his captaincy journey in Champions Trophy with a formidable win percentage of 77.77 (excluding the no results), the third highest among all skippers with more than four wins.

3. Stephen Fleming – 8 wins

New Zealand batting great Stephen Fleming led his nation in five successive Champions Trophy tournaments from its inaugural edition in 1998 till the 2006 event in India. He led the New Zealand team to a historic title victory in the 2000 edition, to mark his nation’s first-ever ICC silverware, regardless of the format. Under his leadership, the ‘Black Caps’ also reached the semifinals of the 2006 event where they lost to eventual winners Australia in a low-scoring Mohali affair.

With eight wins and five defeats from 13 matches, Fleming held a win percentage of 61.53 in Champions Trophy matches.

2. Brian Lara – 11 wins

One of the all-time greats of the game, Brian Lara led West Indies in 15 Champions Trophy matches between the years 1998 and 2006. Under his leadership, the West Indies team reached the finals on three occasions, and managed to lift to coveted title in 2004 with a thrilling two-wicket win over tournament hosts England at The Oval.

Lara also reached the threshold of becoming the first captain in Champions Trophy history to lift successive titles. However, his juggernaut was halted by a rampaging Australian team in 2006.

1. Ricky Ponting – 12 wins

Being the most successful skipper in ODI as well as in World Cup history, Ricky Ponting also stands the tallest among all captains at the Champions Trophy platform. With 12 wins amidst just three defeats from 16 matches (one no-result) spanning four different editions, Ponting’s Australian drawcards even lifted successive titles in 2006 and 2009.

To date, the legendary Australian cricketer remains the only captain in history to win the Champions Trophy history twice in his career.