Fastest Left-Armer?

[zaremba]

Watching Mitchell Johnson bowl at 92.5 mph* today got me thinking about who the quickest left-armers have been. I can't actually think of many.

The only other candidates from recent years that occur to me are Wasim Akram, Brett Shultz and Geoff Allott.

Most of Wasim's career was before the days of speed guns. I always found it hard to judge quite how fast he bowled. His whole method was about deception - he had no jump in delivery stride, his arm was so damn quick, and you couldn't tell how and when the ball was going to move - it was pretty difficult to judge if he was actually as lightning-fast as he sometimes seemed.

Brett Shultz was pretty quick, I think, but I never saw him play - his career was wrecked by injuries.

Geoff Allott always struck me as a medium-pacer but I remember he was timed at 94mph in 1999 in the early days of speed guns. Richard mentioned in another thread that Allott topped 90mph on a number of occasions that year so it may be that he was quicker that I realised.


* NB: A classic piece of Mark Nicholas drivel today. Here it is, verbatim: "Already Mitchell Johnson has hit a couple of 150 balls. And if Tendulkar's going to go as hard as that, it may well tickle the fingers of Ponting and Hayden and company at slip." Why is there even a shred of doubt that Nicholas is the world's biggest tosser among cricket commentators?

 

[PhoenixFire]

I remember watching RP Singh going at around 150kph when he was playing in England in 2007.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Mark Ilott or Paul Taylor. No question...

 

[Richard]

IIRR, Wasim was still sending it down at 90mph-plus in the 1999 WC, though I don't have the figures to hand currently (the 2000 Wisden will find them for you if you do have such a thing to hand). Certainly he wasn't slow even in 2002/03.

IIRR he was getting it down mid-80s in Pakistan in 2000/01 as well - and that in serious heat and humidity in his mid-30s.

I've often wished that Wasim's heyday had coincided with speedguns. Reckon he and Waqar could quite easily have been capable of touching 95mph.

Of course the thing about Wasim was that however quick he was, he seemed quicker because he "hid" the ball so the batsman saw it later than they would with, for instance, Michael Holding with his perfect classical action. This means that the slower bowler (and Wasim was almost certainly slower than Holding) can sometimes give a lesser reaction-time.

As for Schultz, dunno a thing about him really, other than that he was very injury-prone. Don't think he survived quite long enough to bowl in front of a gun. People reckoned he was quicker than Donald (not that that neccessarily means he was) IIRR and Donald was almost certainly a 95mph merchant in his heyday, given that he was still capable of reaching 93mph at the age of 32.

 

[Richard]

Mark Ilott or Paul Taylor. No question...

Annoyingly, I did see Ilott bowl in front of a speedgun, in either 1999 or 2000, can't remember which - and given I can't remember the year, I've certainly no hope of remembering the speed he was clocking.

 

[fredfertang]

Jeff Jones, Simon's dad, was distinctly sharp over the sadly brief period he was at his best.

 

[zaremba]

I don't think Wasim ever matched Waqar at his fastest for pace. Waqar would surely have been a contender for 100mph. Particularly because of the number of very full balls he bowled, which seem to be favoured by the speed gun. There are some good clips of his early days on YouTube, from which his pace is pretty apparent, if you can put up with the racist tribal idiocy of the comments found there.

People remember Waqar from the mid-late 1990s but forget how incredibly quick he was before then. Very much like Ian Bishop (my god, what a truly great bowler he could have been had his back not gone).

 

[zaremba]

Annoyingly, I did see Ilott bowl in front of a speedgun, in either 1999 or 2000, can't remember which - and given I can't remember the year, I've certainly no hope of remembering the speed he was clocking.

IIRC very much RMF rather than FRM.

 

[zaremba]

Jeff Jones, Simon's dad, was distinctly sharp over the sadly brief period he was at his best.

Did you see him bowl, Fred?

 

[Richard]

I don't think Wasim ever matched Waqar at his fastest for pace. Waqar would surely have been a contender for 100mph. Particularly because of the number of very full balls he bowled, which seem to be favoured by the speed gun. There are some good clips of his early days on YouTube, from which his pace is pretty apparent, if you can put up with the racist tribal idiocy of the comments found there.

People remember Waqar from the mid-late 1990s but forget how incredibly quick he was before then. Very much like Ian Bishop (my god, what a truly great bowler he could have been had his back not gone).

Aye, Waqar and Bishop were both sensationally good and exceptionally quick for a time.

I don't doubt Waqar was extremely quick (nor absolutely sensationally brilliantly penetrative) for a few years. Was he up toward 100mph? I honestly wouldn't want to go guessing. Until a speed can be worked-out from footage, you can potentially guess miles out.

The huge, hooping inswing that makes so many batsmen look foolish also makes him look a bit quicker, I think. Though, to emphasise again - no-one would be saying he was slow.

 

[Goughy]

I don't think Wasim ever matched Waqar at his fastest for pace. Waqar would surely have been a contender for 100mph. Particularly because of the number of very full balls he bowled, which seem to be favoured by the speed gun. There are some good clips of his early days on YouTube, from which his pace is pretty apparent, if you can put up with the racist tribal idiocy of the comments found there.

People remember Waqar from the mid-late 1990s but forget how incredibly quick he was before then. Very much like Ian Bishop (my god, what a truly great bowler he could have been had his back not gone).

To be very honest I cant agree with that.

Waqar was quick but it was the late movement that made him appear an extra yard than he was.

In the very early 90s I recall there were early speed guns used in NZ. The numbers cant be compared to today but Waqar was a shade quicker than what Chris Lewis was a season later.

I didnt see Jeff Thomson bowl live but when Shoaib Akhtar and then Brett Lee hit the scene they clearly, IMO, took speeds up a notch from the other guys Id seen.

Guys like Waqar, Donald, Bishop etc were (guessing) approx 145-150 kph rather than 160 kph

All makes for an interesting debate though

 

[fredfertang]

Did you see him bowl, Fred?

Not quite Mr Z - before my time but my father would wax lyrical about Jones snr and there are some celluloid fragments around but being black and white he doesn't appear that quick (well that was Fred Trueman's excuse and I'm sticking to it!)

Quickest leftie I ever saw was Wasim but I was never totally convinced - still he was better than John Lever

 

[zaremba]

To be very honest I cant agree with that.

Waqar was quick but it was the late movement that made him appear an extra yard than he was.

In the very early 90s I recall there were early speed guns used in NZ. The numbers cant be compared to today but Waqar was a shade quicker than what Chris Lewis was a season later.

I didnt see Jeff Thomson bowl live but when Shoaib Akhtar and then Brett Lee hit the scene they clearly, IMO, took speeds up a notch from the other guys Id seen.

Guys like Waqar, Donald, Bishop etc were (guessing) approx 145-150 kph rather than 160 kph

Interesting - if disappointing to have my comfortable certainties shaken! Did you have to be so cruel as to compare him to Chris Lewis though?

I take the point about the inswing making him look quicker than he was, but I still think he was viciously quick. Maybe we'll have to agree to disagree as to his outright pace.

Bishop was very quick - I agree that he was probably not 100mph / 160 kph even before his injury - but it was his bounce and swing, allied to that pace, which made him potentially one of the all-time greats.

 

[popepouri]

As for Schultz, dunno a thing about him really, other than that he was very injury-prone. Don't think he survived quite long enough to bowl in front of a gun. People reckoned he was quicker than Donald (not that that neccessarily means he was) IIRR and Donald was almost certainly a 95mph merchant in his heyday, given that he was still capable of reaching 93mph at the age of 32.

He was really quick. The type of quick where you either let yourself get bowled or he breaks your toe. He was around 90mph.

 

[Goughy]

Bishop was very quick - I agree that he was probably not 100mph / 160 kph even before his injury - but it was his bounce and swing, allied to that pace, which made him potentially one of the all-time greats.

Yeah, I agree with all that.

Long arms and high action giving great bounce and carry at high pace.

Maybe a fraction too temperamental and moody to have been consistent enough to have been an all time great but I wouldnt want to have ever faced him. However, on his day I doubt there were many better.

Anyway, I digress. My answer to the question is probably Wasim but I would have loved to have seen Schultz in Sr Lanka

 

[Top_Cat]

Interesting - if disappointing to have my comfortable certainties shaken! Did you have to be so cruel as to compare him to Chris Lewis though?

Chris Lewis in the early days was pretty damn sharp, though.

 

[archie mac]

Bill Voce?

 

[aussie]

Akram was bowling early 90 mph's during the 99 WC & down in Australia that year.

Schulz in 97/98 vs AUS was like Johnson today, very strong shoulder action which enabled him to really generate some surprising pace.

 

[_Ed_]

Geoff Allott always struck me as a medium-pacer but I remember he was timed at 94mph in 1999 in the early days of speed guns. Richard mentioned in another thread that Allott topped 90mph on a number of occasions that year so it may be that he was quicker that I realised.

Yeah, he certainly was up around the 90 mark. Really depresses us NZ fans to think of what could have been with an Allott/Bond new-ball partnership. Then maybe a fully fit O'Connor...

 

[Richard]

Not to mention Dion Nash, nor how good Chris Cairns might have been had he not suffered so many early-career injuries, nor how good Vettori might've been between 2002 and mid-2004 had his back not played havoc with him...

And James Franklin in recent times as well.