5 captains who lost their job because of an Ashes failure

The Ashes is the most important Test series for English and Australian cricketers and careers are often made or broken on the basis of performances against the old enemies. Success in the Ashes can be career-defining, while failures can often lead to stunted cricket careers and the same holds true for captains who are in charge of teams which fare badly in this historic series.

Captaincy in a series of such magnitude is often a thankless job and poor performances on a personal level coupled with poor results for the team has often led to captains losing their jobs for either side. Here is a look at 5 such captains who lost the top job for failing in the Ashes.

5 Ricky Ponting

Former Australian great Ricky Ponting might be one of the nation's great captains but as far as Ashes series are concerned he has not had a great time. Out of the 4 Ashes series in which he captained, he lost in three of them but it was the third one that eventually led to his ouster as the Test match captain for Australia.

In the 2010 -11 Ashes in Australia, the hosts crashed to a 3-1 defeat to lose the first series at home to England since 1986-87 and Ponting's form with the bat left a lot to be desired.

Former players, among them Steve Waugh, opined that Ponting should bat lower down the order and writing seemed to be on the wall for one of world cricket's greatest batsmen. He retained the captaincy for the 2011 World Cup but he never captained Australia in Test cricket again.

4 Mike Denness

Former England batsman Mike Denness, who is perhaps most well known for handing out bans and fines to 6 India cricketers back in 2001 in his capacity as ICC match referee, had also been the captain of his national team.

Denness' first Ashes as captain in 1974-75 turned into a bit of a nightmare as Australian fast bowlers Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson left the visitors shell-shocked in a display of brutal fast bowling that ended in a 4-1 defeat for England.

Denness was in horrible form himself and had to drop himself from the side after a string of low scores. He did not lose the captaincy after the series, but when Australia visited England in the summer of 1975, they defeated the hosts by an innings and captain Denness was finally fired.

He scored in single figures in that Test and was never selected to play for England again.

3 Graham Gooch

Gooch is counted among the greatest batsmen to have ever played for England and when he was made captain in 1989, it was thought that Graham Gooch would prove to be one of the nation's finest captains as well.

However, the only measure of success for an English or Australian captain is success in the Ashes and in that regard, Gooch fell short as a captain every time. Under him, England played well in Australia in 1990-91 but ended up losing the series 3-0.

In the return series in England in 1993, Australia steamrolled England yet again and led the series 3-0 after the first four Tests. Following his repeated failure to even lead England to a Test win against Australia, Gooch resigned from his post after the fourth Test.

2 Bill Lawry

He might be better known for his exuberant commentary nowadays, but Bill Lawry was an excellent defensive opening batsman for Australia in the 1960s and captained the national team for around three years.

Lawry was a fine batsman and led Australia with distinction in his very first Ashes series in England back in 1968. Australia drew the series 1-1 and regained the Ashes. However, in the series that took place in Australia in 1970-71, his captaincy unravelled spectacularly as a John Snow-inspired England condemned the hosts to a 2-0 defeat.

Lawry came in for heavy criticism from many quarters for his defensive captaincy and it was only a matter of time before the inevitable happened. He was dropped from the side following the sixth Test of the seven match series and never played for Australia again.

He remains the only Australian captain to have been sacked during a Test series.

1 Ian Botham

Botham still holds the record for being the highest wicket-taker for England in Tests against Australia but the Ashes in 1981 did not get off to a good start for the Englishman.

Botham's abilities as a player had been severely affected due to the burden of captaincy and after defeat in the second Test in1981 at Lord's, England were trailing 1-0. He had scored ducks in both innings in that Test and resigned from the captaincy before he could be sacked by the selectors.

Mike Brearley was appointed captain after his resignation. However, his sacking proved to be a boon and England staged one of the most remarkable Ashes comebacks in history in the series. Botham led the way in the third Test at Headingley with a blistering 149 after England had been asked to follow in and helped the team in squaring the series.

England went on to win the next two Tests and won the series, that came to be known as 'Botham's Ashes', 3-1. There has never been a loss of captaincy in this series that led to such incredible results.