Top 5 New Zealand captains of all time

#3 Geoff Howarth

Geoff Howarth during an on-field discussion with Jeremy Coney regarding field placement

At a time when New Zealand cricket was still seeking to establish its identity, Geoff Howarth was the ideal candidate for the job. After spending his formative years in the shadows of his elder brother Hedley (who played 30 Tests), he rapidly rose in stature to become one of shrewdest captains of his generation.

Even as plenty more men have arrived and left, the compact right-hander continues to possess the best win-loss ratio among all captains in New Zealand Test history if a minimum criterion of 10 matches is set in order to formulate a meaningful sample size. The best moment of Geoff Howarth's captaincy career was the 1980 Test series victory against an intimidating West Indies team that would embark on an unbeaten run for more than 15 years.

Captaincy Record

Tests - 11 wins and 7 losses from 30 matches

ODIs - 31 wins and 26 losses from 60 matches