ODI World Cup Winning Coach from 1975 to 2023

Australia beat India by six wickets at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad to lift the 2023 ODI World Cup trophy. The Aussies won a record-extending sixth title after winning the 1987, 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2015 editions. History reveals that this is not only the dominance of the Australian team but also Australian coaches who have better results than this team.

India won the trophy twice while the men in blue played four finals.

It is quite evident that the coaches who guide the team have a huge role in reaching that ultimate result for the team. Let’s take a look at who were the coaches for the champions throughout the editions.

ICC ODI World Cup winning Coaches from 1975 to 2023

From the inaugural edition when the West Indies outplayed the host England, the manager-cum coach Clyde Walcott did some commanding jobs to win the title. And that followed by the 1979 World Cup trophy for the Caribbean Squad in the same fashion.

Walcott was a member of the “three W’s”, the other two being Everton Weekes and Frank Worrell: all were very successful batsmen from Barbados. He was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1958.

Then came India’s glory in 1983. India beat the two-time champion West Indies team which was managed by the great Walcott. Indian former batsman PR Man Singh was the coach of Kapil Dev and Limited. He later served as the secretary of the Hyderabad Cricket Association.

The 1987 edition started the era of Australian Cricket Coaches. In these 13 editions, an Australian coach won 8 titles whereas Australian men have won 6 titles themselves. In 1987, Bob Simpson, the Aussie Leg Spinner All-Rounder, was the coach of the Australian cricket team. The position he held until being replaced by Geoff Marsh in July 1996. The batsman, Marsh didn’t let it go off his hand though. He brought the trophy in 1999 right at the next Edition after joining.

The most successful coach after West Indies’ Clyde Walcott was John Buchanan. Buchanan achieved two back-to-back ODI World Cup trophies for Australia in 2003 & 2007, along with winning the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy. Buchanan, along with former captain Ricky Ponting, led the side to numerous successes, including a world-record 16 consecutive Test match victories and 23 ODI victories in World Cup tournaments.

In 2015, when the tournament reached Australia, coach Darren Lehmann helped the co-host to lift the trophy under captain Michael Clarke. Lehmann was a member of the Australian team that won the 1999 Cricket World Cup and the 2003 Cricket World Cup, where in the 1999 final, he scored the winning boundary, and took the winning catch in the 2003 final.

And in the last Editon, in 2023, Andrew McDonald, another Aussie coach came to India and snatched the trophy from the host around a hundred thousand home supporters. Mcdonald the former Australian pacer, as a coach, led Australia to winning the 2023 ICC World Test Championship Final and the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup.

Apart from that, in 1996 and 2019, two other Australian coaches coached different teams and lifted the trophy. In 1996, Dav Whatmore, the former Australian batsman, coached the Sri Lankan team to win the title under captain Ranatunga. Similarly, In 2019, England for the first time won the title as a host under the Australian coach Trevor Bayliss. Bayliss is the only World Cup-winning coach who never played any international match. He was a middle-order batsman of New South Wales.

The remaining two editions of 1992 and 2011 have two different World Cup-winning coaches. In 1992, when Pakistan won the trophy for the first time, Intikhab Alam was the coach for the Pakistan National team. 

In the 2011 edition, when India met their second glory, South African former batsman Gary Kirsten coached the host. And India lift the trophy under captain Dhoni.