Ranking the candidates for best fast bowler ever - ~20 contenders

[mr_mister]

So last year I did two countdown lists, a best all-rounders countdown and best batsmen after the Don countdown. Users ranked 18 and 25 players respectively that I shortlisted, then I tallied all the votes and compiled a list with write ups of the players which can be found here

Allrounders:

http://www.cricketweb.net/forum/cri...nked-18-all-rounders-here-countdown-list.html

Batsmen:

http://www.cricketweb.net/forum/cri...nked-25-contenders-here-countdown-thread.html



Now it's time for the best fast bowlers to be ranked. I've put this off for a while, mainly because I'm not as good at writing about bowlers as I am batsmen, but even if my reviews are short it'd still be cool to see what CW considers the fast bowling pecking order to be. Maybe others can help me write reviews for the bowlers.


The final list, 25 names:


Barnes
Larwood
Lindwall
Bedser
Trueman
Tyson
Adcock
Davidson
Imran
Lillee
Roberts
Hadlee
Garner
Holding
Marshall
Walsh
Ambrose
Wasim
Waqar
Donald
McGrath
S Pollock
Steyn
Anderson
Philander

 

[Starfighter]

Hmm, if we're going to specifically talk about fast bowlers I wouldn't include Barnes and Bedser, who bowled fast-medium in the preferred terminology of the time but I don't think really bowled what we'd call 'fast' today. e.g. I don't see either sending an effective bouncer, unlike all the others on the list. They bowled a distinctly different style, one not seen these days.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Sub in Walsh and Anderson for Bedser and Barnes imo

 

[mr_mister]

Fair call, but I feel it's rough discarding them as they wouldn't really qualify for a potential spin bowling list here so they are in no man's land. Medium pace is still pace and though they didn't bowl bouncers they still relied on swing and seam and stuff

But i'll see how others feel

 

[StephenZA]

No Philander? Or is he not fast enough either?

 

[mr_mister]

Philander partly slipped my mind and partly i've omitted him because he only started his test career 7 years ago. Has had great results though I know

 

[Mr Miyagi]

Fair call, but I feel it's rough discarding them as they wouldn't really qualify for a potential spin bowling list here so they are in no man's land. Medium pace is still pace and though they didn't bowl bouncers they still relied on swing and seam and stuff

But i'll see how others feel

I have no issue with Barnes or Mustafizur or even Tiger as medium pace spinners

But Barnes gets a podium whatever he is deeemed as. Warne has less guarantees (and yes I watched him before he was famous Marc).

 

[mr_mister]

Tiger will definitely qualify for the spinner's list I do next, despite his paceman like attributes

 

[Mr Miyagi]

Tiger will definitely qualify for the spinner's list I do next, despite his paceman like attributes

Hmmm, very generous if he's battiling for more than Grimmett's bronze.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Neil Adcock?

 

[Burgey]

It’s McGrath. Save yourself the trouble.

 

[Mr Miyagi]

Neil Adcock?

fanie (Adcock was a fast bowler).

 

[Mr Miyagi]

It’s McGrath. Save yourself the trouble.

Which end of the bat did he hold? :P

 

[Starfighter]

Fair call, but I feel it's rough discarding them as they wouldn't really qualify for a potential spin bowling list here so they are in no man's land. Medium pace is still pace and though they didn't bowl bouncers they still relied on swing and seam and stuff

But i'll see how others feel

I was just going by the fact it seemed to be about 'fast bowlers' rather than 'pace bowlers', which of course opens of the field quite a bit. I mean, Barnes and Bedser were great but this doesn't really compare to the others in pace. Pollock wasn't that fast for a lot of his career but he was more a bouncy type.

No Philander? Or is he not fast enough either?

Actually Philander is an interesting case. Do you really call him a 'fast' bowler when he operates in that high 120's sort of field? I think he's right where, if you eliminated the intermediate sort of categories, 'fast' ends and 'medium' begins. Asif also bowled a bit around the same pace, though he could push it up more. There simply aren't many who can operate at that pace in international cricket anymore.

So I think i would be best to keep Barnes and Bedser because there haven't really been enough medium pacers recently to form a distinct category. But exactly how you define different styles of bowling is a whole thread in itself.

 

[Mr Miyagi]

I was just going by the fact it seemed to be about 'fast bowlers' rather than 'pace bowlers', which of course opens of the field quite a bit. I mean, Barnes and Bedser were great but this doesn't really compare to the others in pace. Pollock wasn't that fast for a lot of his career but he was more a bouncy type.


Actually Philander is an interesting case. Do you really call him a 'fast' bowler when he operates in that high 120's sort of field? I think he's right where, if you eliminated the intermediate sort of categories, 'fast' ends and 'medium' begins. Asif also bowled a bit around the same pace, though he could push it up more. There simply aren't many who can operate at that pace in international cricket anymore.

So I think i would be best to keep Barnes and Bedser because there haven't really been enough medium pacers recently to form a distinct category. But exactly how you define different styles of bowling is a whole thread in itself.

Barnes was more different than Philander imo.

 

[mr_mister]

Well yeah, i should have just called the thread pace bowlers. Whether Medium or Fast I feel they belong to the same group.

 

[Mr Miyagi]

Barnes spun the ball, if he had pace it was from chucking.

 

[Starfighter]

Barnes was more different than Philander imo.

I know that, but where do you draw the line?

 

[mr_mister]

yeah it's tough^.

Barnes and O'Reilly from all reports bowled a very similar style. Fast bowler's run-up followed by a quick spinning ball. But for some reason in my mind Barnes was medium pace and O'Reilly spin

 

[ankitj]

Is Tyson in that league? We can arguably throw in Snow, Miller, Fazal, Johnston, Thomson etc. too if Tyson is included.