Top 5 Australian states to have produced the most number of Test captains

#1 New South Wales

Steve Waugh is the most successful captain in Australian history.

Now New South Wales is what Mumbai is to India and Yorkshire is to England. They are the most successful domestic team in Australian domestic cricket history with 46 Sheffield Shield titles and naturally, they have also supplied the national team with plenty of players.

Among them, as many as 18 have gone on to captain the side. Some of them were stand-in captains, of course.

The first two Australian Test captains, Dave Gregory and his successor Billy Murdoch were both New South Wales players and it might be said that a market was set right from the start.

Some of the most illustrious names in Australian cricket have been from New South Wales and same goes when it comes to captains.

Out of the first 27 Australian captains till 1957-58, 10 were from New South Wales and it is not a surprise that the 278th was one too.

Richie Benaud captained Australia from 1957 to 1964 and is regarded as one the country's finest skippers, having won 2 Ashes and drawn 1.

Opening batsman Bob Simpson captained in 39 Test matches stretching over two stints, one from 1963 to 1968 and another in the 1977-78 season. Although he had a win percentage of only 30.76%, he is lauded for having come out of retirement to take the reins once the stars had deserted the team and gone to play World Series Cricket.

The next great captains from New South Wales were Mark Taylor, who turned the team into the world's best and his successor Steve Waugh turned into a winning machine of incredible proportions. Among captains who have captained in a minimum of 10 Tests, Steve Waugh is the most successful captain in Australian history with a win percentage of almost 72% (41 wins in 57 Tests).

Michael Clarke steadied Australia following the retirement of some of the greats between 2011 and 2015 and is regarded as a superb tactician to this day.

Now, Australia is looking to become the team of old under the leadership of another captain from New South Wales in the form of Steven Smith.