Will we get to..

[cover drive man]

A time were a 100 mph bowl is average. If you look at it the average bowling speed has been increasing throughout history but how far can it go?

 

[Goughy]

Average speeds may have increased but I dont think top speeds have.

There maybe more guys bowling 140 kph than 50 years ago but there is the same number bowling 165 kph. ie 0.

 

[Manee]

Average speeds may have increased but I dont think top speeds have.

There maybe more guys bowling 140 kph than 50 years ago but there is the same number bowling 165 kph. ie 0.

AWTA.

 

[Arjun]

I doubt if speeds are increasing- in fact, ever since speed-guns were introduced, bowlers have been bowling a lot slower with time.

 

[sideshowtim]

I doubt if speeds are increasing- in fact, ever since speed-guns were introduced, bowlers have been bowling a lot slower with time.

I agree.

Everyone knows before the speed guns were bought in everyone bowled at at least 170km/h. Jeff Thomson's quicker ball was 240km/h while his slower ball was 200km/h. We are in a dire age of bowling with bowlers who bowl at dire speeds.

 

[cover drive man]

Ok I'm going to sound stupid here but what are speed guns?

 

[Richard]

The guns that measure the speed of the ball.
















They were introduced for the first time in 1998. Before then, no-one really knew accurately how fast bowlers bowled, there were merely guesses.

 

[sideshowtim]

The guns that measure the speed of the ball.
















They were introduced for the first time in 1998. Before then, no-one really knew accurately how fast bowlers bowled, there were merely guesses.

Hilarious guesses, might I add. Some of the speeds I've heard people predict for some pre-90s bowlers are just classic.

 

[cover drive man]

The guns that measure the speed of the ball.
















They were introduced for the first time in 1998. Before then, no-one really knew accurately how fast bowlers bowled, there were merely guesses.

Thanks.

 

[andyc]

I agree.

Everyone knows before the speed guns were bought in everyone bowled at at least 170km/h. Jeff Thomson's quicker ball was 240km/h while his slower ball was 200km/h. We are in a dire age of bowling with bowlers who bowl at dire speeds.

AWTA

 

[Richard]

Hilarious guesses, might I add. Some of the speeds I've heard people predict for some pre-90s bowlers are just classic.

There's no reason, as far as I see, to presume standard "fast" was any different now to 75 years ago. I'd imagine it was and has always been 90mph-ish (or 140kph-ish - 87.5mph - depending on your preferred measurement).

Equally, there'll always have been the odd few bowlers who are seriously, seriously fast. In the post-speedgun age, there've been 2, Shoaib Akhtar and Brett Lee (plus Mornantau Hayward very briefly, and possibly Shane Bond might've bowled 155kph do I recall?), and maybe Shaun Tait to now succeed them.

There'd have been the odd few others down the years. A few such would presumably have been Jeff Thomson, Frank Tyson and Harold Larwood. I'd guess these bowlers bowled at the same sorts of speeds as Shoaib and Lee, 95mph and very occasionally up towards 97-98mph. There's some evidence that Tyson, in 1 series only, might have outdone even this, as he is the only bowler ever known to have bruised batsmen through their pads. But we'll never really know.

 

[Manee]

They were introduced for the first time in 1998. Before then, no-one really knew accurately how fast bowlers bowled, there were merely guesses.

I do not see how the few readings prior to 1998 can be inaccurate since they are simply measuring the speed of the ball from the hand, with a much greater effort than now - since it was rarer and a bigger deal back then. I remember reading in Lillee's book on the top release speeds in a given Test match of Australia Vs West Indies in 1985:

Lillee: 86mph
Holding: 92mph
Roberts: 93mph
Thompson: 99mph

I seem to remember a decimal place or two, but I don't have the book on me right now. Those are the right figures to two significent figures though. Assuming that they are correct, bowlers are not too much quicker than now - especially if you remove Thompson as an anomaly.

 

[Richard]

I'd like to know how these were taken if no-one else had managed to do the same thing for another 2 decades.

BTW, I'd imagine the Test involved was probably 1979\80 or 1981\82 (or possibly 1975\76). Australia played West Indies in 1984 and 1984\85, then 1988\89 and 1991, and Lillee was gone from Australia's team by the time of the first of those.

 

[Manee]

I'd like to know how these were taken if no-one else had managed to do the same thing for another 2 decades.

BTW, I'd imagine the Test involved was probably 1979\80 or 1981\82 (or possibly 1975\76). Australia played West Indies in 1984 and 1984\85, then 1988\89 and 1991, and Lillee was gone from Australia's team by the time of the first of those.

Okay, the date was a guess because it was when the book was written. It is called The Art of Fast Bowling, if you think I am lying. It is my cousin's book and I merely borrowed it so cannot give accurate details at this point in time.

 

[Richard]

Haha, nah, didn't think you were lying, not at all, but I'm rather mystified nonetheless. There's never been so much as one thing I've read that suggests accurate readings were possible before 1998. They tried in 1996, but the gun produced implausible readings and derision. There's been various figures quoted in various places before now, but to my knowledge it remains the case thet they were in different ways fabricated.

The trials of 1977, for instance, do not reflect the same "speed" as we now know, and do not appear terribly accurate either knowing what we now know.

 

[Son Of Coco]

Ok I'm going to sound stupid here but what are speed guns?

This one's pretty fast...

 

[Son Of Coco]

I'd like to know how these were taken if no-one else had managed to do the same thing for another 2 decades.

BTW, I'd imagine the Test involved was probably 1979\80 or 1981\82 (or possibly 1975\76). Australia played West Indies in 1984 and 1984\85, then 1988\89 and 1991, and Lillee was gone from Australia's team by the time of the first of those.

Possibly the same way we miraculously judged players actions at the Champions Trophy a few years back from video etc and declared 99% of bowling actions up to that point illegal, only to revert to biomechanical testing again afterwards due to the innacuracy of video.

 

[Smudge]

Hilarious guesses, might I add. Some of the speeds I've heard people predict for some pre-90s bowlers are just classic.

If you refuse to believe that Ewen Chatfield regularly bowled at 200km/h, then you're beyond help.

 

[Son Of Coco]

If you refuse to believe that Ewen Chatfield regularly bowled at 200km/h, then you're beyond help.

I was at the ground when a ball Max Walker bowled in Brisbane in 1973 broke all three stumps, killed the wicketkeeper, and put the entire front row either side of the scoreboard into a coma. A pre-pre-speed gun estimate clocked him at 485mph. The delivery was so quick every spectator sitting side-on to the pitch sported a hairstyle that was windblown towards the striker's end. I feel very lucky to have survived that day.

 

[roseboy64]

and can't believe John didn't know what speed guns are.