Greatest Fast Bowler Ever

[masterblaster]

Akram pips Ambrose for me. Ambrose personofied aggression and pure sheer ruthless aggression.

Akram was as cunning, as sneaky and as vicious with his pace and reverse swing as any bowler I've ever seen, and I've always appreciated that more I guess.

 

[wpdavid]

I was reading the cricket articles on the original site, forum stood out. Yeah Marshall was awesome but the West Indians of that generation were too gentle and polie, albeit effective. Where's the larrakinism? Fast bowlers should use their bouncers as weapons not a friendly "please don't hit me for another six". I'm hoping too see some.

You're kidding, yes? They might have preferred the silent approach, but I don't think anyone who faced them would refer to them as gentle. Marshall's big plus over Lillee was he also produced the goods on unhelpful Asian wickets, not only on those that suited his style of bowling. DKL was undeniably great, but he generally had conditions on his side. And, IMHO, any spectators who needed Lillee's occasional tantrums / marketing wheezes to get their bums on seats need their heads seeing to.

Of the others mentioned, I'm not sure Barnes could be classified as fast. Mind you, neither could McGrath, for much of his career.

 

[Top_Cat]

Ooooo, this is a toughie. Personally, I think it's far too tough to separate Lillee, Marshall, McGrath, Akram and Ambrose. Lillee for pure guts, Marshall for relentless pressure, McGrath for consistency and performance in all situations and conditions, Akram for being able to do things with the ball no-one would have thought possible and Ambrose for being da meanest mofo pace bowler I've ever seen.

And yes I agree, great photo of the great fast bowler Ambrose. He is certainly vastly underrated by most people, other than those who had the misfortune of facing him! The best first-over bowler in Test history in my opinion.

 

[Western Warrior]

Whispering Death

 

[Western Warrior]

However, out of the current crop of fast and fast-medium bowlers I think this guy edges out Gillespie and will be a real hardful for the Aussies when the travel to England to defend the Ashes.

 

[SJS]

If I asked who is the best fast bowler in the world today (lets say for selection into a test team for a match tomorrow) who will you select first ? If Australia had Harmison and Shoaib in addition to their existing bowlers whom would they surely select as one of the bowlers ? I think more people will say McGrath than any other name.

And but for the jingoistic and nationalistic fervour the least votes might go to Shoaib and Lee.

Why ?

McGrath is not "fearfully" fast . Far from it. But he is deadly because he is deadly accurate. We never seem to give enough weightage to this. Whenever any great like Bradman has chosen their favourite sides, the bowlers they have chosen have been fast, sure, but they have not necessarily been the fastest or those with the most vicious bouncers. They have always been accurate first.

Tendulkar was in the middle of a horendous bad patch in Australia but managed to get out of it with great determination and continued in Pakistan.
Now too he is coming back from a lay off and has been out of touch with the game, but only a bowler like McGrath is able to deny him that settling down. Its when you see them bowling against truly great batsmen that you can see the true worth of truly great bowlers and rarely will a vicious bouncer be a major weopen on display !

Larwood could trouble Bradman with leg theory not just because he was so fast, which he was, but because he had pinpoint accuracy.

Thats why bowlers like Hadlee and Imran will always rate very high amongst modern day fast bowlers.

 

[Joao_Quinto]

If I asked who is the best fast bowler in the world today (lets say for selection into a test team for a match tomorrow) who will you select first ? If Australia had Harmison and Shoaib in addition to their existing bowlers whom would they surely select as one of the bowlers ? I think more people will say McGrath than any other name.

And but for the jingoistic and nationalistic fervour the least votes might go to Shoaib and Lee.

Why ?

McGrath is not "fearfully" fast . Far from it. But he is deadly because he is deadly accurate. We never seem to give enough weitage to this. Whenever any great like Bradman has chosen their favourite sides, the bowlers they have chosen have been fast, sure, but they have not necessarily been the fastest or those with the most vicious bouncers. They have always been accurate first.

Larwood could trouble Bradman not just because he was so fast, which he was, but because he had pinpoint accuracy.

Thats why bowlers like Hadlee and Imran will always rate very high amongst modern day fast bowlers.

I have to agree 100%

 

[Shounak]

Akram, Imran and Younis were very deceptive in their movement of the ball. Like they could seam or swing it wherever and however they wanted to. How much of this do you think is due to the poor television coverage, We all saw how Dravid got busted with his possibly accidental thing with the lozenge and the ball. Ten years ago however, picking at the seam or roughing up the ball would have been much easier to do. Do you think that this is a reason why these bowlers could do so much and were so good?

 

[Joao_Quinto]

Akram, Imran and Younis were very deceptive in their movement of the ball. Like they could seam or swing it wherever and however they wanted to. How much of this do you think is due to the poor television coverage, We all saw how Dravid got busted with his possibly accidental thing with the lozenge and the ball. Ten years ago however, picking at the seam or roughing up the ball would have been much easier to do. Do you think that this is a reason why these bowlers could do so much and were so good?

In a word, NO.

You cant get that good by picking at the ball.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Even so, they were a class apart of their opposition.

I'm not going to get into a GOAT debate... as I've said in another thread, there are several bowlers who are a class apart - Marshall, Garner, Holding, Ambrose, Walsh, Wasim, Waqar, Imran, McGrath, Donald, Pollock, Hadlee, Thomson, Botham - who at their best are (were) cause of many a sleepless night.

Harmison and Akhtar are the most likely current bowlers to join that élite once their careers are more complete.

 

[nightprowler10]

Akram, Imran and Younis were very deceptive in their movement of the ball. Like they could seam or swing it wherever and however they wanted to. How much of this do you think is due to the poor television coverage, We all saw how Dravid got busted with his possibly accidental thing with the lozenge and the ball. Ten years ago however, picking at the seam or roughing up the ball would have been much easier to do. Do you think that this is a reason why these bowlers could do so much and were so good?

Heck no, I don't just say that because you're talking about three of my favorites of all time. People are just having a hard time realizing that Imran Khan and his proteges were about a decade ahead of the rest of the world. Its just a lot easier to say "ball tampering", but if you look at Akram's career towards the end, he was getting even MORE accurate than ever before, at a time when picking at the ball would be extremely difficult without getting cought. And Younis didn't perfect his swing until the mid-90s.

So really, Imran is the only one whom you can blame for ball tampering and get away with it, but I'm sure you won't be able to find credible proof to support that claim.

 

[deeps]

wasim waqar donald and ambrose.......

dont know why,, i never considered walsh so brilliant, and then he got the most wickets....strange

 

[Anil]

malcolm marshall

 

[Langeveldt]

Allan Donald, Curtley Ambrose and Malcolm Marshall...

If they ever played on the same team!! Would have been amazing

 

[Langeveldt]

However, out of the current crop of fast and fast-medium bowlers I think this guy edges out Gillespie and will be a real hardful for the Aussies when the travel to England to defend the Ashes.

On a more imporant note.. The batsman is Graham Smith I think...

 

[Slow Love™]

Who do you people think the greatest fast bowler of all time is?

I'll get the ball rolling. In terms of having it all together, definitely Dennis Lillee. The guy's got a miniscule one day economy and an awesome bowling average, not to mention the mental side of things. His inimitable aggression is something that these current bunch of medium pacers can only dream of. Who can forget the Javed Miandad incident. Let's just hope another Lillee or Warwick Todd is produced.

Heh, I'm amazed nobody's said "who the hell is Warwick Todd???"

For me, I'd say Hadlee, Lillee or Holding, take your pick. A little suprising that nobody's mentioned Andy Roberts at all though.

 

[Craig]

However, out of the current crop of fast and fast-medium bowlers I think this guy edges out Gillespie and will be a real hardful for the Aussies when the travel to England to defend the Ashes.

Personally having watched the way Gillespie has bowled in thiss series - that is top dog in terms of current fast bowlers.

 

[Son Of Coco]

Personally having watched the way Gillespie has bowled in thiss series - that is top dog in terms of current fast bowlers.

Gillespie is an awesome fast-bowler, but unfortunately he rarely stays fit for long periods of time. It'd be nice to see him play continuously for a while cause then I think he'd be able to sustain this type of form.

I'd rate him higher than Harmison, but then the ratings say otherwise and that's fair enough. I may be convinced re:Harmison about this time next year (well, slightly earlier).

 

[Son Of Coco]

Well said! Anyone who considers the likes of Garner, Holding, Marshall, Walsh and Ambrose to be 'tame', really needs to check the history books.

Yeah, they were all great bowlers. Marshall's a favourite (although he wasn't in the 80's haha) and could bowl an outswinger with a front on action (<-------that takes some doing!)

 

[Dydl]

Ambrose and Walsh were effective on the GABBA pitch more than any other in Australia.