Best Fast Bowler of the last 20 years

[Flem274*]

This thread is scary.

You're all right, now shut up.

 

[tait express123]

IMO Shuan Pollock is the best bowler in the past 20 years only a cats whisker ahead of Mcgrath.

 

[stephen]

IMO Shuan Pollock is the best bowler in the past 20 years only a cats whisker ahead of Mcgrath.

And what leads you to that conclusion?

Is it the higher average, the less overall wickets or the worse strike rate?

 

[Bracken]

OK - it was over-hasty of me to make said judgement on Reid. Happy?

Attaboy.

I have done such things before BTW, and admitted it to myself - just quite often I won't proclaim those judgements on here until I've amended them, so people on here won't notice the fact that the error has been made.

Heh. See, I KNEW you had a fine sense of humour.

Well played, sir.

 

[Ikki]

Geezus, Richard saying he was wrong or hasty. Hell has frozen over and Santa lives there.

 

[Richard]

No, I just tend to appreciate people suggesting the possibility politely rather than in a "HA HA YOU'RE WRONG!!!!!!!!!!" manner. I might say "you'd do well to note this" but in my experience a lost cause remains a lost cause.

 

[Ikki]

I think if you tended to be more open-minded instead of so black-and-white, giving your opinions as facts, people would be less inclined to try and rub it in your face.

 

[Richard]

I don't give my opinions as facts. Not any more, at least - there have been occasions (not as many as some like to think) where I have done it down the years on CW but I made a deliberate choice to put it behind me a little while ago (I forget when it was).

There are several who are now guilty of it where I am not.

 

[Manee]

I don't give my opinions as facts. Not any more, at least - there have been occasions (not as many as some like to think) where I have done it down the years on CW but I made a deliberate choice to put it behind me a little while ago (I forget when it was).

That's true.

 

[Slifer]

I voted Mcgrath. Ambrose a close second. Overall my ranking of fast bowlers:

Mcgrath/Marshall
Imran/Ambrose/HAdlee
Lillee
etc
etc
etc

 

[Ikki]

Wow, those guys better than Lillee? Especially Imran? Disagree immensely.

 

[silentstriker]

McGrath
Marshall
Ambrose
Imran
Lillee
Hadlee

For mine anyway.

 

[Manee]

McGrath
Marshall
Ambrose
Imran
Lillee
Hadlee

For mine anyway.

Makes sense.

 

[Beleg]

akram might not have been the most successful, statistically speaking, but there was just something about his bowling that catapulted him to the awesomely-amazing status.

akram-warne-murali ---> the glamour boys of cricket.

(nonwithstanding lee, bond, akhtar)

 

[Ikki]

akram might not have been the most successful, statistically speaking, but there was just something about his bowling that catapulted him to the awesomely-amazing status.

akram-warne-murali ---> the glamour boys of cricket.

(nonwithstanding lee, bond, akhtar)

Looking at his record, Akram seems to have gotten incredibly unlucky. He was a bowler, like Warne, where every ball looked like a REAL opportunity. He looked like he'd run through a side at any time. His swing-bowling was breath-taking. Even if he had taken a 5-fer you felt he could/should have taken more. The opposite to McGrath in many ways who seemed to get wickets without as much fuss or attention.

 

[Uppercut]

McGrath
Marshall
Ambrose
Imran
Lillee
Hadlee

For mine anyway.

Sounds good to me. Might have Akram in there though.

 

[Ikki]

McGrath
Marshall
Ambrose
Imran
Lillee
Hadlee

For mine anyway.

Lillee
Marshall/McGrath/Hadlee
Wasim/Ambrose/Donald

 

[Manee]

Lillee
Marshall/McGrath/Hadlee
Wasim/Ambrose/Donald

Why Lillee undoubtably first, as you have him? Surely you cannot go purely of empirical evidence as Lillee barely played outside New Zealand, England and Australia which offer helpful pitches. This is not to say that he could not succeed outside these areas, but had he bowled more in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, etc, then the empirical image of Lillee as always quick, always swinging the ball, may have been tampered with...

...or am I missing something?

 

[silentstriker]

Sounds good to me. Might have Akram in there though.

Yea, he'd be in there around Hadlee IMO, though I would probably have Hadlee higher.

 

[Uppercut]

Yea, he'd be in there around Hadlee IMO, though I would probably have Hadlee higher.

I find it hard to compare Akram to the others actually. There's a particular situation where he's miles better than pretty much any bowler, but I wouldn't put him quite on the same pedestal as the others the rest of the time.