The 2017 edition of ICC Champions Trophy is scheduled to start on 1st June and the top 8 teams will battle for the coveted trophy. The tournament which is termed as ‘World Cup of Champions’ has been won by South Africa, West Indies, India, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Australia. South Africa and New Zealand won the first two editions in 1998 and 2000 respectively when the tournament was known as ICC Knockout Trophy.

Australia has won the glory twice whereas India has also won it for two times, once in 2002 when they shared the trophy with Sri Lanka and then in the last edition in 2013. There have been various captains who lead their respective squads across all the editions of the tournament. Here are the top 5 captains of Champions Trophy from its last seven editions.

1. Hansie Cronje

In 1998, ICC Knockout Trophy was first held and it was all the 8 Test playing nations have participated in a tournament apart from World Cups. In the inauguration season, the Proteas won this trophy under the leadership of Hansie Cronje and its importance increases more as they haven’t been able to win any ICC trophy since then.

In the semi-final, Proteas outplayed Sri Lanka by a total of 240 runs and then defeated WestIndies chasing 245 easily in the finals. Throughout the tournament, Cronje led his team really well and he himself amassed 148 runs which included an unbeaten half-century in the final. Cronje was one of the most inspirational captains of Proteas and this year too, they would be looking to take him as an inspiration and win the trophy.