Top 5 fastest bowlers in the world

[Neil Pickup]

I think Simon Jones, Stephen Harmison, Jermaine Lawson, Hayward, Ngam, Dilhara and a lot of Indian 'fast' bowlers ended up that way. Any other famous examples?

"Ended up"?!

Of that 6, Harmison, Jones, Lawson, Ngam and Dilhara have all suffered from injury and are all (well, have not heard anything of Ngam in ages) improving, whilst Hayward just had a falling out with the board...

 

[Neil Pickup]

Cricinfo's record of speeds (looks out of date to me..)

161 Shoaib Akhtar
157 Brett Lee
154 Mornantau Hayward
154 Jason Gillespie
153 Waqar Younis
153 Allan Donald
151 Makhaya Ntini
151 Shane Bond
151 Darren Gough

 

[Craig]

Mohammad Sami got some huge sppeds in Hamilton. Shame he's inconsistant.

Got up to 154km/ph late in his spell. He was getting quicker later in his spell:O

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Jermaine Lawson is quite quick and Jerome Taylor and Fidel Edwards aren't bad either.

 

[Eclipse]

I like it . A patriotic Aussie........:

:P

Indeed I am but I am not just saying that Lee had a faster avrage speed because I am Australian I have seen stat's indicating this but unless you have some way of getting them from Channel Nine you will probably struggle to come upon them.

Shoaib has always had that extra burst of pace 1-2 kph faster than Lee but over the period of a test match Lee did clock faster avrage speed's.

Shoaib is quite clearly the better bowler however.

 

[Eclipse]

Cricinfo's record of speeds (looks out of date to me..)

161 Shoaib Akhtar
157 Brett Lee
154 Mornantau Hayward
154 Jason Gillespie
153 Waqar Younis
153 Allan Donald
151 Makhaya Ntini
151 Shane Bond
151 Darren Gough

Must be a litte out of date because Lee was clocked at 160 twice during the world cup.


Also Gillespie is still dam quick considering his short run up. I noticed one of his ball's at the SCG at 153kph.

 

[Arjun]

That list of mine is regarding the best fast bowlers of the CURRENT era, STILL IN ACTION, which is why I included Williams.

The list of 5 fastest bowlers does not hold much relevance, since there are quite a few who are not as fast, but quite powerful, aggressive, or accurate, but still quite successful. Out of the faster bowlers, these have to be the better ones- Akhtar, Lawson, Bond and Lee (when fully fit). The likes of Sami, Fidel, Butler and someone named Jerome Taylor are a bit raw and not that great yet. Of course, when all the 'typical seaming conditions' of England and NZ are gone, say on a flat Indian ODI wicket, or a really slow and crumbling Lankan pitch, the really fast bowlers are the ones who are effective.

If none of the better fast bowlers were injured, this would be my list- Pollock, McGrath, Gillespie, Akhtar and Ntini.

 

[Neil Pickup]

That list of mine is regarding the best fast bowlers of the CURRENT era, STILL IN ACTION, which is why I included Williams.

Williams is arguably not in the five in Australia.

 

[iamdavid]

Williams is arguably not in the five in Australia.

Take the arguably out of that & you have a very valid statement.

 

[marc71178]

Must be a litte out of date because Lee was clocked at 160 twice during the world cup.

160kph = 100mph

AFAIK, only 1 bowler has hit 100mph.

 

[Richard]

Waqar Younis supposedly made his debut at 17 years 364 days old , he was clocked at over 150kph within his first month at test level.

No-one was clocked at anything with any true accuracy until 1998.
Waqar was 26 in 1998.
Anything to do with timing deliveries is illegitimate until the speed-gun used in the England-South Africa series.

 

[Richard]

Cricinfo's record of speeds (looks out of date to me..)

161 Shoaib Akhtar
157 Brett Lee
154 Mornantau Hayward
154 Jason Gillespie
153 Waqar Younis
153 Allan Donald
151 Makhaya Ntini
151 Shane Bond
151 Darren Gough

Very, very out of date.

 

[thierry henry]

1. Akhtar- seems to be at his peak and can fire in consistent 150 plus deliveries over a 3 or 4 over period in pretty much every game. Just reached 159kph in NZ.

2. Lee- Only registering 140s atm but deserves to be here on reputation and past bests

3. Sami- A clear-cut third IMO, as far as I'm aware he registered a ball around the 156/157 mark recently (??) which was the fastest registered by any current bowlers apart from Lee and Akhtar. He is proving his pace in NZ and bowling only marginally slower than Akhtar, but with slightly more variance in pace.

4. Bond- Consistent pace, can hit 150s, I think his best was around 153/154 in the West Indies in 2002?

5. Edwards/Lawson- Haven't seen much of them but have registered 150s recently so deserve their spot on the list.

Ntini tends to be more in the 140s, Hayward just misses my list because I really haven't seen enough of him, and from what I've seen of Jason Gillespie this summer (which is quite a lot) he's struggling to touch 145.

 

[thierry henry]

A comment on Pakistani player ages.

I fully believe Mohammad Sami's age (what is he supposed to be, 21?? he is pretty young looking). However I have serious doubts about Abdul Razzaq who has been around for a fair while and has a heap of ODI experience, looks like an old man yet is apparently only 23?? And Waqar reminds me of that lame arse movie Jack, he was a geriatric by the time he hit 25!! Seems pretty suspicious. Also, what happened to Shahid Afridi? Is he injured? If not, it's hard to believe that a 16 year old could demolish international attacks, yet couldn't hold his place in the team as an adult.

 

[RMF]

He probably msiread the topic as Top 5 Fast Bowlers In The World, as I did intially. I only recognised my error when I read the topic. IMO the topic should read Fastest 5 Bolwers In The World.

I dont mean to be picky but thats two people who seem to have misread it, as it isnt correct anyway.

Really no big drama, but I definately understand why he put Pollock. Read the rest of his post, he doesnt say anything about speed at all.

srry about the miss type ive edited a bit of it :P

 

[Neil Pickup]

100mph = 160.93kph :P

So 160kph = 99.42mph...

 

[marc71178]

100mph = 160.93kph :P

So 160kph = 99.42mph...

Neil = Sad Ginger.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Neil = Sad Ginger.

I win :P

 

[iamdavid]

160kph = 100mph

AFAIK, only 1 bowler has hit 100mph.

Nope

Lee hit 160.something bowling to Nick Knight in the WC.

 

[Salamuddin]

well according to marc, you couldn't rely on the speeds recorded
in the world cup because of the rarefied South African atmosphere
or the faulty speed guns used or something.....