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Your top ten TEST bowlers of ALL-TIME

Days of Grace

International Captain
Now for the sequel to the batsmen thread. Please post your top 10 test bowlers of all-time.

Once again, please try to focus on an all-time list, not just players you have seen (those lists won't be counted).

This is tough, but I'll give it a go anyway to kick things off:

1. Muralitharan - his record speaks for itself. Okay, he has not done well in Australia, but he has proven to be perhaps the most dangerous bowler of all time when conditions suit him. Soon he will hold all the important bowler's records.

2. Marshall - the complete fast bowler. The fact that he stood out as clearly the best in the fearsome Windies pace attack of the early 80s just speaks volumes for him.

3. Warne - reintroduced match-winning spin bowling into test cricket. And is the current wicket record-holder. Should be enough to put him in many people's top 3.

4. Barnes - must have been a phenomenal bowler. A legend. You have to have him up there when making all-time lists.

5. McGrath - the metronome. Forever the shining example that you don't need to have searing pace to take an absolute mountain of wickets. Very high percentage of top-order victims is also a huge plus point.

6. Hadlee - carried the New Zealand for more than a decade. And hit his peak around the age of 35. An inspiration and perhaps the most driven man out of all these bowlers.

7. Imran Khan - for his peak bowling in the early 80s. And had the best bowling average of all the great bowlers of the 1980s. Pity he didn't play more matches as a bowler.

8. Wasim Akram - now it's getting difficult. Anyone out of perhaps 10 bowlers could make the final three. But Wasim produced some of the best wicket taking balls ever and was great to watch. Such a quick arm action, it was unbelievable.

9. Lillee - just beats Ambrose for the final fast bowler's spot. Because he inspired many fast bowlers after him. And still does. And always gave 100% whereas perhaps Ambrose went missing on occasions.

10. O'Reilly - fantastic spin bowler. Very economical. And did very well against England, the best opposition available in his day.


Okay, that's me. Looking forward to seeing your lists. You don't have to explain your choices if you don't want to. I just felt like it cause I'm waiting for the bloody washing to finish :)




5.
 
  1. Imran Khan
  2. Richard Hadlee
  3. Malcom Marshall
  4. Wasim Akram
  5. Glenn McGrath
  6. Curtley Ambrose
  7. Sidney Barnes
  8. Bill O'Reilly
  9. Allan Donald
  10. Muttiah Muralitharan
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Not a great fan as all know, and am only prepared to pick from the 20th century and not the 19th, but anyway...

1, SF Barnes - the ultimate bowler. Never, I doubt, has anyone offered such threat while being so difficult to score from. Wristspin at speed no-one has likely ever bowled it aside from him.

2, Malcolm Marshall - the ultimate seam-bowler, as close as anyone comes to perfection in that art. Had everything.

Really, though, exactly like the batsmen, after Barnes and Marshall you can have them in any order and it's a bit silly to try and split four to ten. So please count all these as equal - listed in alphabetical order.

Curtley Ambrose - limited mostly to the leg-cutter and movement off the seam - but what does that matter when you can bang the ball down on a perfect line and back of a length from well over 7ft (foot-to-shoulder to and arm-length) as regularly as anyone has ever done.

Allan Donald - again, the complete seam-bowler pretty much, probably even more than Marshall because he bowled reverse-swing which virtually no-one had heard of in Marshall's day. Never gets the credit he deserves as far as I'm concerned, mostly due to 3 worthless Tests at the end of his career. 8-) Also did perhaps best of all against the best batting side of his time, which is very unusual.

Alan Davidson - another who never gets the credit he deserves. A quiet achiever, but an astonishingly effective one.

Sir RJ Hadlee - very possibly the second-best seam-bowler ever. Had everything also, just did it slightly less well than Marshall. And didn't have the nastiness which Marshall occasionally dabbled in. :p

Imran Khan - possibly the greatest swing-bowler of them all, when conventional and reverse is combined. Conquered more dead Pakistan wickets than probably anyone, and not just through swing either.

Ray Lindwall - Australia's greatest seam-bowler for mine, and Fred Trueman thought so too.

Glenn McGrath - basically read Curtley Ambrose.

Muttiah Muralitharan - a nod to spin, the most extraordinary bowler ever beyond doubt, more even than Barnes, and a superlative one. Could have been Warne too, or any of several other bowlers.

To cut things down to 10 is not really possible to do with any decency.
 

Engle

State Vice-Captain
S.Warne
M.Muralitharan
S.Barnes
D.Lillee
M.Marshall
C.Ambrose
Imran Khan
Wasim Akram
G.McGrath
M.Holding
 

Fiery

Banned
Sir RJ Hadlee - very possibly the second-best seam-bowler ever. Had everything also, just did it slightly less well than Marshall. And didn't have the nastiness which Marshall occasionally dabbled in. :p
Can you explain that part please Rich?
 

Fiery

Banned
Not a great fan as all know, and am only prepared to pick from the 20th century and not the 19th, but anyway...

1, SF Barnes - the ultimate bowler. Never, I doubt, has anyone offered such threat while being so difficult to score from. Wristspin at speed no-one has likely ever bowled it aside from him.

2, Malcolm Marshall - the ultimate seam-bowler, as close as anyone comes to perfection in that art. Had everything.

Really, though, exactly like the batsmen, after Barnes and Marshall you can have them in any order and it's a bit silly to try and split four to ten. So please count all these as equal - listed in alphabetical order.

Curtley Ambrose - limited mostly to the leg-cutter and movement off the seam - but what does that matter when you can bang the ball down on a perfect line and back of a length from well over 7ft (foot-to-shoulder to and arm-length) as regularly as anyone has ever done.

Allan Donald - again, the complete seam-bowler pretty much, probably even more than Marshall because he bowled reverse-swing which virtually no-one had heard of in Marshall's day. Never gets the credit he deserves as far as I'm concerned, mostly due to 3 worthless Tests at the end of his career. 8-) Also did perhaps best of all against the best batting side of his time, which is very unusual.

Alan Davidson - another who never gets the credit he deserves. A quiet achiever, but an astonishingly effective one.

Sir RJ Hadlee - very possibly the second-best seam-bowler ever. Had everything also, just did it slightly less well than Marshall. And didn't have the nastiness which Marshall occasionally dabbled in. :p

Imran Khan - possibly the greatest swing-bowler of them all, when conventional and reverse is combined. Conquered more dead Pakistan wickets than probably anyone, and not just through swing either.

Ray Lindwall - Australia's greatest seam-bowler for mine, and Fred Trueman thought so too.

Glenn McGrath - basically read Curtley Ambrose.

Muttiah Muralitharan - a nod to spin, the most extraordinary bowler ever beyond doubt, more even than Barnes, and a superlative one. Could have been Warne too, or any of several other bowlers.

To cut things down to 10 is not really possible to do with any decency.
Where's Ian Bishop? Totally contradicted yourself by including Murali or Warne and not him
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Don't really believe Murali to be in a top-10 TBH, just thought I might as well fling a spinner in there.

Could easily have had Ian Bishop, though, he was phenominal.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Can you explain that part please Rich?
Well... Marshall was a bit more effective than Hadlee. So even though he had all the attacking techniques Marshall did, he wasn't quite capable of using them as brilliantly as Marshall did. Not that that's any great shame, obviously.
 

Fiery

Banned
Well... Marshall was a bit more effective than Hadlee. So even though he had all the attacking techniques Marshall did, he wasn't quite capable of using them as brilliantly as Marshall did. Not that that's any great shame, obviously.
He got 14 less 5fers, 5 less 10fers and less wickets. Pretty different style of bowlers anyway
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Numbers of the likes of wickets, five-fors etc. are explained as much by the number of overs you bowl (which is determined by the number of games you play and the strength of the bowlers around you) as how well you bowl.

What really makes a bowler is how he does in the overs he does bowl, ie how economical he is and how quickly he takes wickets.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Implying that Hadlee lacked in that dept?
In comparison to Marshall, yeah - and not by that much - which is really no great shame.

He probably did it better than anyone else apart from Marshall, though.
 

Fiery

Banned
In comparison to Marshall, yeah - and not by that much - which is really no great shame.

He probably did it better than anyone else apart from Marshall, though.
Fair enough. How much of Hadlee's bowling and career did you actually watch?
 

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