Merchants of speed: Greatest fast bowlers of all time

Cricket has always been considered as a batsman oriented game, with batting being seen as the more glamorous aspect.

But the game has also thrown up some amazing pace bowlers since the early years of the Ashes rivalry, with the likes of Aussies Dennis Lillie and Jeff Thompson good enough to have even the best of batsmen quivering in their boots (The great WestIndies of the 1970s will surely vouch for the fearsome two!).

Cricket, along with its list of great batsmen like Sir Donald Bradman, has also seen equally good pace bowlers like Ray Lindwall and the Pakistani duo of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis.

One of the best pacers in early times was undoubtedly England’s Harold Larwood.

Larwood along with another English great Bill Voce, were the duo that tormented Bradman and co. during the infamous ‘Body Line’ series, under skipper Douglas Jardine.

Larwood, though he played only a handful of tests for England, is undoubtedly one of the fastest bowlers English cricket has ever produced.

Larwood, speed demon!

And what about Fred Trueman?

Trueman, a Yorkshire miner’s son, will probably be the only other English bowler who could match Larwood for sheer pace (Ask the visiting Indian teams of the 1940s who faced the full force of ‘Fiery Fred’!).

The 1970’s had ‘Lightning Jeff’ and Lillie who were famous for scaring batsmen into intimidation (It is said that Thompson once clocked a speed of 170km’s/hour, though it is still uncertain).

The West Indians during their peak, had their own assembly line of great fast bowlers, like Joel Garner, Malcom Marshall and Michael Holding(Opposition batsmen would have rather lost their wickets rather than having a broken jaw trying to hook and miss Holding!).

Closer to the 1990’s and 2000’s, it was Pakistan with the two ‘W’s, Wasim and Waqar who helped Pakistan become a serious competitor in world cricket.

The 2 ‘W”s, Sultans of Swing!

Wasim and Waqar were known as the ‘Sultans of swing’ for their prodigious ability to swing the ball either ways and leave batsmen bamboozeled (Remember Akrams heroics in the 1992 World Cup final and Waqars toe crushers?).

Currently, Srilankan Lasith Malinga and SouthAfrican Dale Steyn are two of the fastest bowlers in the modern game and there are also good upcoming bowlers like James Pattinson of Australia, who looks set to be Australia’s bowling spearhead in coming times.

Malinga and Steyn, two of modern cricket’s fastest

The list of great fast bowlers throughout cricketing history is a long one (Allan Donald, Curtley Ambrose, Courtney Walsh and many more!) and trying to rank bowlers from different eras will always remain an impossible task.

Hence, irrespective of a Thompson or Lillie steaming in full flow, the sight of batsmen’s stumps cartwheeling in cricket will always remain a sight to behold!