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"I didn't bowl your little outswingers"

Matt79

Matt79

Global Moderator
Well, I can believe that he was comfortably above the 100mph barrier, and faster than Shoaib, but that seems to be a rather large margin. I reckon he might have given 170kph a nudge, and been consistently at 160kph, in his all-too-short prime.
 
silentstriker

silentstriker

The Wheel is Forever
Matt79 said:
Well, I can believe that he was comfortably above the 100mph barrier, and faster than Shoaib, but that seems to be a rather large margin. I reckon he might have given 170kph a nudge, and been consistently at 160kph, in his all-too-short prime.
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I'm willing to buy that he was faster than Lee and Akhtar, but I doubt 180kph. 165-170kph at his fastest sounds right, with more deliveries up in the 155-160kph range than either Lee or Akhtar.
 
LongHopCassidy

LongHopCassidy

International Captain
Towards the end of my career, around 1981, I got chipped around a lot by the board. I was the bad boy, so I was picked as a last resort, even if I picked up the most wickets.

Apart from that injury in the first Test, the broken foot, I wouldn't have had an injury in a cricket match - no hamstrings, no backs, no nothing - the whole deal. No injuries. So what does that tell you about my action? It's got to have had something right about it. And I bowled the quickest.
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:laughing: Arse.
 
Migara

Migara

Cricketer Of The Year
I doubt it. 165kph may be the quickest he operated. And BTW no one have not measured speeds of two speedsters who was considered to be quicker than Shoaib. Mohammed Akram and Mohammed Zahid, both had very brief careers due to injury, but when fit they delivered quickest deliveries I have ever seen. They probably got up to 165kph, but that's a wild guess. Even Shoaib and Donald on pomp could not beat Lara and De Silva with pace (on the pull especially), but Md. Zahid and Md. Akram did it respectively. So I am inclined to think both of them are quicker than Shoaib and Donald.
 
silentstriker

silentstriker

The Wheel is Forever
Migara said:
I doubt it. 165kph may be the quickest he operated. And BTW no one have not measured speeds of two speedsters who was considered to be quicker than Shoaib. Mohammed Akram and Mohammed Zahid, both had very brief careers due to injury, but when fit they delivered quickest deliveries I have ever seen. They probably got up to 165kph, but that's a wild guess. Even Shoaib and Donald on pomp could not beat Lara and De Silva with pace (on the pull especially), but Md. Zahid and Md. Akram did it respectively. So I am inclined to think both of them are quicker than Shoaib and Donald.
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But there is lot more to that than pure speed. You could be deceptive, or have a unique action, etc which helps you in beating batsmen.
 
Migara

Migara

Cricketer Of The Year
Yes, I agree. But these two had classical high arm actions. Nothing un-orthadox about them as Thompson. And by applying the same principle to Thommom, because of his akward action, he may have been made to look much quicket than what he was.
 
Xuhaib

Xuhaib

International Coach
Migara said:
I doubt it. 165kph may be the quickest he operated. And BTW no one have not measured speeds of two speedsters who was considered to be quicker than Shoaib. Mohammed Akram and Mohammed Zahid, both had very brief careers due to injury, but when fit they delivered quickest deliveries I have ever seen. They probably got up to 165kph, but that's a wild guess. Even Shoaib and Donald on pomp could not beat Lara and De Silva with pace (on the pull especially), but Md. Zahid and Md. Akram did it respectively. So I am inclined to think both of them are quicker than Shoaib and Donald.
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Zahid was surely quicker then Shoaib, have heard many ex players who played against both say that Zahid was faster and that too bu a considerable distance with Brian Lara stating he's the fastest he ever came up against.

Mohd Akram was sharp but not in Zahid's range, I would classify him as an even more ill-disciplined Steve Harmison.
 
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Migara

Migara

Cricketer Of The Year


Now Thommo's comment about he measured 160k when it rached the batsman is absolute rubbish. The speed was measured during that time by calculating length/time. The length was the total length of the trajectory of the ball (L1 + L2) which is greater than the pitch length. The average speed of the ball is (L1 + L2) / t, t is the time taken for ball to reach the batsman. Thommo averaged 161k by this method.It is obvious that this was not done real time as today.

Now a certain velocity can be divided in to two (or three if you are consuidering 3D motion) component x and y which is perpendicular to each other. Modern speed guns measure the x component of the velocity (which is less than the realease speed of the pall) at the release. That's why full tosses appear quicker than bouncers on the modern speed gun (x component reduces, and y component increases in a bouncer). Akthar recorded 161.4k by this method.

It is very difficult to compare speed of Thommo and Akthar. It's like comparing apples and oranges.
 
Jono

Jono

Virat Kohli (c)
I very much doubt he could bowl anything more than 160-163km/h consistently. Maybe 165.

Would have been quite the sight Thommo. Wish I was able to see him play.
 
FaaipDeOiad

FaaipDeOiad

Hall of Fame Member
He's got a point about the timers, but obviously he's taking it a bit far. The fact that he was measured at speeds pushing 100mph measured over the length of the wicket is really quite remarkable, and the famous speed test that has the video on Youtube was actually after his first major injury which supposedly reduced his pace. He was almost certainly the fastest bowler ever during that brief window early in his career, IMO. Would probably have pushed close to 170 at times, just like Tait, Lee and Shoaib consistently bowl (or did) 150+ but can push 160 at times.
 
Richard

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Remarkably, agree with Fuller (^^). And that's about the best read I've ever seen from dear old Thommo. Standouts being thus:
Thommo said:
Greg Chappell was unbelievable - he was the best bloke I played with or against in my time. He was very correct, very upright, very strong on the on side, just very hard to get through - didn't give you many chances and could score quickly. Freddo (Roy Fredericks) was the best at having a little bit of time to play against me.
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Malcolm Marshall was the best bowler. He was not huge, released the ball late, bowled sharp, was up there, bowled pretty quick. He just got wickets everywhere, on pitches where we never did.
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:laugh: at this:
On a rest day during the Indian tour in 1977-78, Don Bradman was around in the nets. I was bowling only legspin to him, but he had a couple of young blokes trying to get him out. With no pads, no nothing ... for a 68-year-old, he belted the hell out of them on a turf wicket. And he hadn't batted for 20 years. I went back in and said, "Why isn't this bastard playing with us tomorrow?" That's how good I thought he was.
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This is a great pic too:

Never noticed how much he looks like John Denver before now tho:


I'd dispute that he didn't bowl outswingers mind. Little outswingers? Maybe not. But I have it on good authority that he could and did get the ball to swing away from the batsman. Especially in England in 1975 and 1977.
 
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