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The Ultimate Bowler

a massive zebra

International Captain
What characteristics would you want in the ultimate perfect bowler?

I suggest........

The legs of Curtley Ambrose for bounce

The fingers of S.F.Barnes for bowling leg-cutters at pace

The strength of Jeff Thomson for pace

The brains of Richard Hadlee

The stamina and heart of Dennis Lillee

The inswinging yorker of Waqar Younis

The outswinger of Fred Trueman
 

Nedved's Fan

Cricket Spectator
a massive zebra said:
What characteristics would you want in the ultimate perfect bowler?

I suggest........

The legs of Curtley Ambrose for bounce

The fingers of S.F.Barnes for bowling leg-cutters at pace

The strength of Jeff Thomson for pace

The brains of Richard Hadlee

The stamina and heart of Dennis Lillee

The inswinging yorker of Waqar Younis

The outswinger of Fred Trueman
Sami for accuracy, Chris Harris for pace, Inzamam for his lithe body.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
And not one mention of IMO the second-greatest bowler of all-time.
And the greatest is mentioned only for a characteristic I've never heard of before - long fingers.
Bhagwat Chandrasehkar had six fingers, that was an advantage (he also had some weird advantage caused by polio at a young age).
But how amz hasn't mentioned Malcolm Marshall is beyond me.

I might also add Muttiah Muralitharan's double-joint in the wrist.
 

a massive zebra

International Captain
Richard said:
And not one mention of IMO the second-greatest bowler of all-time.
And the greatest is mentioned only for a characteristic I've never heard of before - long fingers.
Bhagwat Chandrasehkar had six fingers, that was an advantage (he also had some weird advantage caused by polio at a young age).
But how amz hasn't mentioned Malcolm Marshall is beyond me.

I might also add Muttiah Muralitharan's double-joint in the wrist.
I agree with you that Marshall was the best fast bowler ever, but was looking for specific characteristics that would help. Marshall does not appear to have had one phenomenal strength, but was simply amazingly competent overall.

I was not necessarily talking about long fingers, but flexible fingers that alow you to bowl unplayable cutters at pace.

I was attempting to create the ultimate fast bowler, so anything Muralitharan has is in all probability, irrelevant. But I agree he is the best spinner.

You criticised my non-selection of Barnes and Marshall but did not suggest any capacity in which they deserve a mention. Until that you do that the criticism is unwarranted.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Marshall's accuracy.
To bowl as economically as he did from such a short stature suggests his accuracy was something exceptional.
Tall bowlers all have much greater margin-for-error in length; to bowl economically is not such an achievement for them as it is for a shorter man.
Anyway, if you want the ultimate bowler you'd best go for superhuman, not premier-human.
 

Langeveldt

Soutie
Allan Donald's action

Curtley Ambrose's Height

Shaun Pollock's brain

Shoaib Akhtar's agression

Glenn McGraths accuracy

Jacques Kallis's batting
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Langeveldt said:
Ambrose more accurate than McGrath? Gimme a break!
I don't reckon there is much difference, really.
No more than there is between him and Pollock.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
a massive zebra said:
Yeah in terms of completeness. But he wasn't actually that good - Test average of 34, strike rate of nearly 100.
I can't help wondering how seriously he actually took bowling.
Everyone said he was more than capable of being one of the best opening bowlers around at the time. People also commented on his competance as a spin bowler, both wrist and finger.
But I don't know whether he was ever as committed as he was to his batting - of course, he didn't need to, being one of the best batsmen of all-time.
 

aussie_beater

State Vice-Captain
Langeveldt said:
Ambrose more accurate than McGrath? Gimme a break!
why ? anyone who has seen both of them at their peak cannot tell the difference. and if you are a stats junkie, you won't be able to tell the difference either. Ambrose has a better economy rate then McGrath in both forms of the game....tests and ODIs.
 

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