Battle of the Best Bowling Action

[The Sean]

Ted McDonald has been overlooked so far I think, so a nomination for him is overdue.

Though the final of this for me has to be Larwood v Lindwall.

[Jono]

Someone mention Brett Lee ffs

Dodgy elbow.

Swann is a great call. Also nominate Ramesh Powar

[Satyanash89]

Also nominate Ramesh Powar

Named him already... had such an easy, beautiful action
Sehwag deserves a nomination too, imo

[Teja.]

Since Waqar - who should take this out - has already been nominated several times,

I'll nominate Joel Garner. ****ing scary. Would've been an absolute nightmare on a surface with movement off the pitch considering his height, impeccable length and action.

2 deliveries of what I'm talking about + another video of a jaffa with the camera focus on his action, courtesy robelinda, of course.

[BoyBrumby]

Think Starc's already had a shout & I love his languid action, makes it look so fluid and effortless. Looks to have a v slight tendancy to fall away to his right at times, so it isn't quite the finished article, but seems so natural compared to (say) Siddle's.

Early days for Jackson Bird too, but he looks to have a very solid MO. SImple, easily repeatable action.

[kingkallis]

Rodney Hogg and Corri van Zyl had awesome action as well! Dont forget Garth le Roux

[kingkallis]

Named him already... had such an easy, beautiful action
Sehwag deserves a nomination too, imo

Ray Price - the easiest action ever

[nightprowler10]

Shocking lack of Shabbir Ahmed in this thread.

[watson]

Lillee
Hadlee
Larwood
Lindwall
Bishan Bedi
Jim Laker

Larwood and Lindwall were graceful with silky smooth actions, but they both had one aesthetic short-coming just the same - they bowled round-arm. My grandmother bowled round-arm.

[Agent Nationaux]

Southee also has a nice action.

[Agent Nationaux]

Chris Cairns had a lovely action.

[kingkallis]

Allan Donald
Shane Bond
Waqar Younis
Dale Steyn
Shoaib Akhtar
Shane Warne
Jamed Pattinson
Jerome Taylor
Darren Gough
Chris Cairns
Chaminda Vaas

Dennis Lillee
Micheal Holding
Imran Khan
Ray Lindwall
Herald Larwood
Rodney Hogg
Corrie van Zyl
Garth le Roux
Ian Botham

[Howe_zat]

No-one's arguing it isn't effective, it just isn't an attractive one. Having Murali in a battle of the "best bowling action" would be like having Graeme Smith in a "most aesthetically pleasing batsman" comp; he's very good at what he does but let's not pretend he is what he isn't.

It's arguably done more damage to the sport than any action before or since too.

Ugly cricketers can still be fun to watch if they're unique enough, so I can see why people like to watch Murali. Maybe a better batting comparison would be someone like Chanderpaul.

[Burgey]

Larwood and Lindwall were graceful with silky smooth actions, but they both had one aesthetic short-coming just the same - they bowled round-arm. My grandmother bowled round-arm.

Lindwall's action looked dodgy in side on footage I've seen of him.

[straw man]

This thread needs more Chaminda Waaaaas

I've always been a sucker for a good bowling action and tend to over-rate players that have them.

Murphy Su'a
Used to love that guy. What a champ.