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CW Ranks the Bowlers

steve132

U19 Debutant
I know this isn't a hustings type thread but thought I'd make one point - Our runaway winner, Maco, played in 14 full English seasons - he topped the bowling averages just once in that time - Harold Larwood played in only twelve full English seasons - he topped the averages as many as five times

1. Harold Larwood
2. Jim Laker
You might want to take a look at their respective Test records for an explanation. Larwood was not especially impressive in Test cricket - his only successful series was the bodyline one in 1932-33. Marshall probably has the best Test record of any fast bowler.
 

steve132

U19 Debutant
Once again:

1. Lindwall
2. Holding

I'm really surprised that Lindwall is not ranked higher. Virtually all of his contemporaries considered him to be the best bowler of the period.
 

Slifer

International Captain
True but i guess its a case of back then, he stood out more as there werent as many great fast bowlers to compete with/against.
 

Noble One

International Vice-Captain
True but i guess its a case of back then, he stood out more as there werent as many great fast bowlers to compete with/against.
Pretty tough to stand out amongst the following fast bowlers of Lindwall's time. Bedser, Statham, Trueman, Miller, Davidson, Tyson, Hall, Mahmood.
 

adharcric

International Coach
Pretty tough to stand out amongst the following fast bowlers of Lindwall's time. Bedser, Statham, Trueman, Miller, Davidson, Tyson, Hall, Mahmood.
Not if you're talking about all-time greats. For instance, only Trueman from that list has entered the ranking so far.
 

Slifer

International Captain
Pretty tough to stand out amongst the following fast bowlers of Lindwall's time. Bedser, Statham, Trueman, Miller, Davidson, Tyson, Hall, Mahmood.
All due respect, they dont have a patch on the very good/great fast men of recent vintage: Mcgrath, Lillee, Mcdermott, Gillespie, Hadlee, Wasim, Waqar, Imran, Shoaib, Donald etc
 

stephen

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Really surprised that Grimmett is rated so far below O'Reilly. Most people thought they were nearly inseperable as bowlers.
 

fredfertang

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
You might want to take a look at their respective Test records for an explanation. Larwood was not especially impressive in Test cricket - his only successful series was the bodyline one in 1932-33. Marshall probably has the best Test record of any fast bowler.
The reason I made the point I did is because that's exactly what you shouldn't do. Put in context their test careers simply aren't comparable
 

BoyBrumby

Englishman
1) JC Laker
2) RR Lindwall


Lindwall looks to have this one sewn up, which is fair enough. Played his last test at 38 (which was very old for an Australian of his era, with the reticence they always had about paying cricketers anything much past 30 was rare-ish) and still maintains an average a tick over 23. If he'd retired after the 54/55 Ashes, for instance, by which time he was already 33, he'd have over 170 wickets at under 21 apiece (cricinfo).
 
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zaremba

Cricketer Of The Year
Pretty tough to stand out amongst the following fast bowlers of Lindwall's time. Bedser, Statham, Trueman, Miller, Davidson, Tyson, Hall, Mahmood.
All due respect, they dont have a patch on the very good/great fast men of recent vintage: Mcgrath, Lillee, Mcdermott, Gillespie, Hadlee, Wasim, Waqar, Imran, Shoaib, Donald etc
Hmmmmm...

I think you'll be in a small minority if you consider that Bedser, Statham, Trueman, Miller, Davidson, Tyson, Hall, and Mahmood "don't have a patch on" Jason Gillespie and Craig McDermott. If you ranked those 10 bowlers in order, Gillespie and McDermott would be numbers 9 and 10.

And to say that Lillee (or Hadlee or Imran) is of "recent vintage" is really stretching things - his Test career began 38 years ago and ended over 25 years ago. If you're going back that far, you should equally add Larwood, Constantine, Martindale, Tate, Gilligan, Bowes, and others from the 1920s and 1930s (and perhaps even the 1910s) to the list of Lindwall's comparators.

And by the same logic, why should you lump Lillee in with the "recent bowlers" rather than as near-contemporaries of Lindwall? Lillee's Test career began just 11 years after Lindwall's ended and, as I've said, Lillee's Test career ended over a quarter of a century ago. So if we're bringing Lillee into the comparison at all, it should be as a near-contemporary of Lindwall's rather than a bowler of "recent vintage". Pretty much the same goes for Hadlee too.
 

adharcric

International Coach
Lindwall - 19
Laker - 7
Holding - 6
Donald/Davidson - 4 each
Larwood/Grimmett/Spofforth - 3 each
Thomson - 2
Pollock/Bedser/Verity - 1 each
 

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