Allan Border inherited a broken Australian Test side from Kim Hughes in 1984 and, by the end of the decade, had rebuilt it into the team that would win the 1989 Ashes 4-0 and dominate world cricket for the next twenty years.
Hughes resigned in tears at a press conference in November 1984; Border was the only realistic successor.
Australia had been hammered by West Indies and lost senior players to the rebel SA tours.
When Kim Hughes resigned in tears in November 1984, Australian cricket was in its worst state since the Packer split. The rebel tours to South Africa had stripped the side of senior players. Border, the only batsman of stature left, took over a team in chaos. He was famously uncharismatic, hard-nosed, and willing to lose ugly. From 1984 to 1987 Australia rarely won, but Border held the side together through sheer batting volume — six Test hundreds in 1986 alone. The 1987 World Cup win in India and Pakistan, under Border and coach Bob Simpson, was the first major silverware. Two years later he led the side to England and won the Ashes 4-0 — a result that triggered a transfer of cricketing power that lasted until 2005. Steve Waugh, Mark Taylor, David Boon, Geoff Marsh, Dean Jones — the spine of Australian cricket for the next decade — were all blooded under Border.
Border accepts captaincy after Hughes resigns
Six Test centuries in 1986
1987 World Cup win
1989 Ashes 4-0 win
Mentors Waugh, Taylor, Jones
Nov 1984
Hughes resigns; Border takes over
1986
Six Test hundreds
Oct 1987
World Cup win in India
Aug 1989
4-0 Ashes win in England
“We had to learn how to win again. AB taught us.”
“I just batted. The runs kept us in the game.”
Border continued as captain until 1994, finishing with then-records for Test runs (11,174) and matches (156).
The captaincy that turned Australia from a beaten side into the dominant team in world cricket.
The 'Border era' is now recognised as the foundation of the Australian dynasty that would win the World Cup in 1999, 2003 and 2007.
Yorkshire v Essex
1932-06-16
On 15-16 June 1932 Herbert Sutcliffe (313) and Percy Holmes (224*) put on 555 for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton, breaking the world first-class record for any wicket and adding a layer of folklore — including a scoreboard that read 554 for several minutes and a hastily reversed declaration — that has clung to the partnership ever since.
Australia v England
1933-02-14
With the fate of the Bodyline series in the balance and England 216 for 6 chasing 340, Eddie Paynter checked himself out of a Brisbane hospital where he was being treated for acute tonsillitis, taxied to the Gabba in pyjamas and a dressing gown, and batted for nearly four hours to score 83. England drew level on first innings, won the Test by six wickets and the series 4-1.
Australia
1934-09-25
Days after the 1934 Oval Test, Bradman fell seriously ill with appendicitis that progressed to peritonitis. With antibiotics not yet available, he was given little chance of survival; his wife Jessie left Adelaide on a sea voyage to England prepared for the worst. He recovered after weeks of intensive nursing in a London nursing home and returned to first-class cricket the following Australian summer.