With two World Cup titles as captain, Clive Lloyd is the most successful captain in World Cup history. Ricky Ponting is the only man who has a realistic chance of equalling this record.

Lloyd, in fact, was in a position to do better and claim his third title as captain until India upset the applecart for him! Despite that, though, he remains one of the best batsmen and captains in World Cup. In 17 World Cup matches, Lloyd has scored 393 runs at 43.66 runs per innings with tow fifties and a top score of 102. He was the first man to score a hundred in a World Cup final in 1975.

Lloyd rates his performance in 1975 as the better of his two winning campaigns. "It was the first World Cup for a start and to do well when I batted made it a particularly special moment," he said talking about the performance. Considering that this was the first ever World Cup, all sides were thought to be at par. The West Indies simply had a better team and good leadership. Lloyd had become the captain of the West Indies just a year or so prior to the tournament and since then, his batting had been on the rise. In the World Cup, it blossomed further as the West Indies routed everyone in sight to take the first ever World Cup home.

1979, though, was a little tougher. The West Indies had been on the rise under Lloyd's captaincy and with the tag of defending champions, were considered the team to beat. Since 1976's tour of Australia, Lloyd had adopted straightforward tactics of packing four fast bowlers in the team and going for broke! That the batting was strong also helped reduce the pressure on the bowlers.

The 1979 final was an interesting and hard-fought one for the West Indies. The English team had seen reasonable success with part-time bowlers Geoff Boycott, Wayne Larkins and Graham Gooch. And the plan seemed like it would work again when the main bowlers had reduced the Windies to 99 for 4. But Richards was still standing and he belted the bowling out of the park to notch his only hundred in World Cups and take the West Indies to the safety of 286.

Defending this target with Roberts, Holding, Croft and Garner should have been a breeze and the England tactics further played into the hands of the West Indies. Boycott and Brearley opened for England and proceeded at a snail's pace. So slow was the progress that the West Indies felt compelled to let these two bat on for the sake of their own win! And to this effect, Lloyd even dropped a chance off Boycott so he could bat on! That Boycott hit the next two balls for four is another story, but the damage had been done and the asking rate shot through the proverbial roof! The West Indies would defend their title and continue their unbeaten run in World Cup cricket.

This run, though, was to be broken soon. A slightly changed and more intensive format for 1983 saw each team play the other twice in the preliminary rounds and the opening match was the West Indies versus India. The Windies were stunned by India and although they would beat them in the second match, the record of being unbeaten had been broken.

1983 wasn't a particularly memorable tournament for Lloyd. He did not bat in most of the matches thanks to the top order always delivering. But in the final when things went wrong, his lack of 'time in the middle' was exposed as he fell for just 8. Lloyd was one of five batsmen to fall within 25 runs and give India hopes of defending their score of 183. In the end, India was the only team to have beaten the West Indies twice in the World Cup and the run of titles had been stopped.

Since retiring from cricket, Lloyd has been actively involved in administration. After a stint with the West Indies team as manager, he is now an ICC Referee and would definitely be seen in action during the upcoming tournament. A great leader and batsman, Lloyd will perhaps remain the most successful captain in World Cups for a while to come.

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