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Atul Sharma Named the Fastest Bowler in the World
A week into his first season of any form of cricket, and Atul Sharma has confirmed prior claims to being the quickest bowler on the planet. After clocking a maximum of 172kmph during an incredible display of fast bowling against the Holy Hand Grenades in which he ended up with figures of 6-84, the jury was out - Sharma was, beyond doubt, the fastest bowler in the history of the game.
When asked how he attained such speeds, Sharma mumbled something that vaguely sounded like, "Me flip tyre and swing axe at tree".
This method of intense training has now been adopted by the BCCI and is currently being implemented across fast bowling academies all around India, in hope of producing the second fast bowler for the country.
Ex fastest bowler from India Harbhajan Singh had this to say, "It's a myth. I don't trust the technology used to measure the speed, it does not seem 100% accurate to me."
Unfortunately for Sharma, Harbhajan is just one of the numerous detractors. Reports have recently come in that Ishan Narang (known as Cevno on Silly Point) has claimed that Sharma is bowling at speeds of not more than 140kmph - "I've watched him on TV, he's not that fast". Esteemed member BoyBrumby has also deemed Sharma's action as "slightly suspect" .
Robert Cribb, expert statistician, has acknowledged the feat by Sharma, but says that it does not make him the fastest bowler in the world - "For that title, he has to be playing and bowling for a much longer time to obtain a decent spread of data to work with." At the time of the interview, Cribb was wearing a pair of Pokemon boxers saying Mew = Ditto, so we encourage our readers to have some perspective when reading about this source.
Meanwhile, other high profile cricket personalities who wish to remain unnamed are convinced that the BCCI is to blame. For what exactly, they have yet to confirm.
Daemon is not an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo
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