It is not very often that you look back at a captaincy record and find it easier to list their losses instead of wins. While every captain has their own share of memorable losses, what was interesting about Ricky Ponting's captaincy record in the World Cup is the fact that he lost just twice across three tournaments.
After going through his first two World Cups as captain without a single defeat, the only blemish on Ponting's tenure as Australia skipper at the World Cup came during the 2011 World Cup.
Ponting's first tryst with the World Cup came in 1996 as a 21-year-old and while he would go on to play a pivotal role in Australia's second World Cup title in 1999, it was only during the 2003 edition that he first got a taste of captaincy in the biggest stage of them all.
Since the 2003 World Cup, Ponting captained Australia in 29 matches at the tournament, which is a world record. He finished with an incredible win percentage of 92.85 with 26 wins, two losses and a no-result.
Ponting began his tenure with a win against Pakistan in the 2003 edition and under him, Australia would win 10 more games in the tournament to claim their third World Cup.
In the 2007 edition, Australia won all 12 of their games to make it three successive World Cups and their fourth overall.
It was only during the 2011 World Cup that Ponting first faced what not winning a game felt like in the tournament.
The first time Australia failed to win a game under Ponting, they didn't lose. Instead, the game against Sri Lanka at R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo was washed out due to rain, giving Ponting his first no-result as skipper.
His final two games as a skipper in the World Cup both ended in defeat. Australia's 34-match unbeaten World Cup run was ended by Pakistan at Colombo and in the quarter-final against India at Ahmedabad, Yuvraj Singh's all-round effort meant Australia couldn't make it four successive World Cups.
Despite those two successive defeats, Ponting finished with the best record as skipper in World Cup history by a mile. And his incredible record is unlikely to ever be broken.