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Greatest Fast Bowler Ever
- Thread starter Shounak
- Start date
luckyeddie
Cricket Web Staff Member
Indeed. It's great that we have cricket fans from so many countries throughout Europe and the world.priestfan said:
I too am a huge Priest fan (saying that, I wish that they had never recorded the horror song that is 'Loch Ness'
), and have been since the very early 'Rocka Rolla' days - Maiden too. I live at Castle Donington (the legendary Donington, as in 'Monsters of Rock') so it's probably a good job.In their madness they even recorded songs which had the express purpose of testing my loyalty. Judas Priest was more than an obsession for me. The name and the logo have not let go of the finer sense till today and even now after so many trials and tribulations the sudden riff or the scream can send goose bumps up and down this feeble spine.
My favourite priest songs are the ones which were sadly over looked by the self styled critics or the true to the core purists. I will just list em down so that ...the thread is lost, the sense departed and I am left with nothing but a severed sentence.
Defenders of the Faith aka Heavy Duty, Better by you better than me, evening star, painkiller, nightcrawler, touch of evil, freewheel burning, heavy metal, love you to death, hard as iron,
Rocka Rolla I could never lay my hands on. Sad wings of Destiny was another that I could not find. I did not like Breaking the Law either. When they disbanded I raised a solitary glass to bitter acceptance and moved on. Iron Maiden was another favouirte of mine. As was Sabbath and the rest is all predictable. My favourite song for a time was heaven and hell by black sabbath.
I think I might end up boring some people to death here so I will leave quietly with the assertion that a fast bowler must be judged for his pace, versatility, character and shall we say madness.
Wasim was supremely gifted. And all this ' greatest left arm bowler '' thing I hear actually damns him with faint praise as it were. How many right armers or how many pacemen to date come even remotely close to his genius?
Fact remains he was less of a killer than Imran , lillee or Roberts. I saw him crumble on some occasions and was put off by his 90ish lack of killer instinct. In the West Indies the great Richie Richardson who by the way is another unsung hero took wasim apart. I had an exam on the following day and there I sat mouth agape as Richie pelted Wasim all over the place.
I would also venture on to say that the mighty Viv would have just stepped out of the crease and on that front foot of his sent the inswinging yorker out of the ground.
Wasim could have done better. This is only a thought.
And on one occasion he just could not run through a south african line up. He could lose the scent of battle rather easily.
Imran on the other hand was faster than wasim and his inswinging was of a different type altogether. What he did in 83 it was? against the daunting indian line up and that too single handedly remains in my opinion the best fast bowling display. That over he bowled to Vishwanath was just too much. Imran also had the rare ability to take the battle to the mighty windies. In 1988 at the age of 36!! he still had the pace to destroy a west indian side that was led by Viv and had Marshall to quit the scores. Imran was not a gutless bag or something that rhymes with it unlike the members of the pakistani cricket board which in my opinion should be encouraged to take up sky diving without the chutes. This pathetic board was always there to sour it for any cricket fan. Still Imran stood up and went against the dead track safe bet theory. He fought fire with fire as is the way of the true warrior. For almost three years he played as a batsman. One wonders how the record books might have looked if the shin stress fracture had not intervened.
Roberts was the one who taught Marshall the skidding bouncer. He always attacked the stumps and made the batsman play. His yorker-bouncer combination or his fast-faster bouncer and that leopard like stalking instinct of his made him the most fascinating and complete bowler for me. He was a mystery. One never really knew what the man was thinking or what the next ball would have to say. He was like Qamar Zaman of squash only more inscrutable.
I read somehwere on this forum that Lillee's ability against left handers is not above doubt. I saw him bowl to Edrich, Roy Fredericks and there are tales of him sending the mighty sobers back to the pavilion notwithstanding the 200 odd sobers managed against him later. Lillee was complete and if anyone thinks he was not he should as the abler man once said beg borrow or steal to watch him in aciton.
His bouncer, his yorker.. oh yes he had the yorker and a damn good one, his off cutters, his accuracy and his incredible ability to bowl fast for longer periods at a stretch made him the greatest.
Ian Bishop was another tragedy. I wish there is a messiah for the fast men ..
Ambrose, Mcgrath, Pollock are all worthy of credit but in the context of genuine pace and iconoclastic spells they fall way behind.
The fit has subsided, the memories muddled, the monitor begins to shimmer and Saturday wanes as the Priestfan slumps back into his chair.
Be well Custodians of the Cricket Web and let the debate grow perhaps it will bring us back the true pace man someday.
My favourite priest songs are the ones which were sadly over looked by the self styled critics or the true to the core purists. I will just list em down so that ...the thread is lost, the sense departed and I am left with nothing but a severed sentence.
Defenders of the Faith aka Heavy Duty, Better by you better than me, evening star, painkiller, nightcrawler, touch of evil, freewheel burning, heavy metal, love you to death, hard as iron,
Rocka Rolla I could never lay my hands on. Sad wings of Destiny was another that I could not find. I did not like Breaking the Law either. When they disbanded I raised a solitary glass to bitter acceptance and moved on. Iron Maiden was another favouirte of mine. As was Sabbath and the rest is all predictable. My favourite song for a time was heaven and hell by black sabbath.
I think I might end up boring some people to death here so I will leave quietly with the assertion that a fast bowler must be judged for his pace, versatility, character and shall we say madness.
Wasim was supremely gifted. And all this ' greatest left arm bowler '' thing I hear actually damns him with faint praise as it were. How many right armers or how many pacemen to date come even remotely close to his genius?
Fact remains he was less of a killer than Imran , lillee or Roberts. I saw him crumble on some occasions and was put off by his 90ish lack of killer instinct. In the West Indies the great Richie Richardson who by the way is another unsung hero took wasim apart. I had an exam on the following day and there I sat mouth agape as Richie pelted Wasim all over the place.
I would also venture on to say that the mighty Viv would have just stepped out of the crease and on that front foot of his sent the inswinging yorker out of the ground.
Wasim could have done better. This is only a thought.
And on one occasion he just could not run through a south african line up. He could lose the scent of battle rather easily.
Imran on the other hand was faster than wasim and his inswinging was of a different type altogether. What he did in 83 it was? against the daunting indian line up and that too single handedly remains in my opinion the best fast bowling display. That over he bowled to Vishwanath was just too much. Imran also had the rare ability to take the battle to the mighty windies. In 1988 at the age of 36!! he still had the pace to destroy a west indian side that was led by Viv and had Marshall to quit the scores. Imran was not a gutless bag or something that rhymes with it unlike the members of the pakistani cricket board which in my opinion should be encouraged to take up sky diving without the chutes. This pathetic board was always there to sour it for any cricket fan. Still Imran stood up and went against the dead track safe bet theory. He fought fire with fire as is the way of the true warrior. For almost three years he played as a batsman. One wonders how the record books might have looked if the shin stress fracture had not intervened.
Roberts was the one who taught Marshall the skidding bouncer. He always attacked the stumps and made the batsman play. His yorker-bouncer combination or his fast-faster bouncer and that leopard like stalking instinct of his made him the most fascinating and complete bowler for me. He was a mystery. One never really knew what the man was thinking or what the next ball would have to say. He was like Qamar Zaman of squash only more inscrutable.
I read somehwere on this forum that Lillee's ability against left handers is not above doubt. I saw him bowl to Edrich, Roy Fredericks and there are tales of him sending the mighty sobers back to the pavilion notwithstanding the 200 odd sobers managed against him later. Lillee was complete and if anyone thinks he was not he should as the abler man once said beg borrow or steal to watch him in aciton.
His bouncer, his yorker.. oh yes he had the yorker and a damn good one, his off cutters, his accuracy and his incredible ability to bowl fast for longer periods at a stretch made him the greatest.
Ian Bishop was another tragedy. I wish there is a messiah for the fast men ..
Ambrose, Mcgrath, Pollock are all worthy of credit but in the context of genuine pace and iconoclastic spells they fall way behind.
The fit has subsided, the memories muddled, the monitor begins to shimmer and Saturday wanes as the Priestfan slumps back into his chair.
Be well Custodians of the Cricket Web and let the debate grow perhaps it will bring us back the true pace man someday.
luckyeddie
Cricket Web Staff Member
Priestfan, your love of great fast bowling (and music) matches my own. The game is a war, the ball a weapon. My personal favourite was Mikey, an absolute legend at Derbyshire. It's interesting to note that one of the truly great players of fast bowling, Boyks, rates Holding as the greatest of his lifetime. Incidentally, Holding reckons that Bishop could have been the best of the lot if he'd had a back that could stand up to the rigours of the game.
Keeping with the Derbyshire trend, the greatest day's work I've seen in the last 25 years by a quick was by Big Dev against South Africa. Such a shame that Malcolm didn't have any real hatred in his veins - he certainly had the armoury.
You Guys Are History
Keeping with the Derbyshire trend, the greatest day's work I've seen in the last 25 years by a quick was by Big Dev against South Africa. Such a shame that Malcolm didn't have any real hatred in his veins - he certainly had the armoury.
You Guys Are History
Indeed he did. Once during a county match he bowled a bouncer which caught someone on the temple. The more I saw of that delivery the more convinced I became of the English resurgence. Devon had it all but where was the hunger? Where was demon that possesses the practitioner of pace? Another mystery one should say or perhaps there is more to it. Perhaps he saw more of pace with that leadened brow of his then anyone else in his day and age possibly could. Pace is a strange something. It is perhaps the only vent to existence, the only expression that makes us promethean enough to steal from the share of past. It consumes the fast man. It makes him an enigma ( Roberts ) or a madman subject to the darkest silences ( Imran ) or someone meant for guilded straitjackets and golden chains for he is Hell unleashed ( Lillee ).luckyeddie said:
Pace works in mysterious ways. It is an ultimate emphasis on the insufficience of words.
Now to the subject of one Michael Holding. I must pause for a moment and reflect on the cosmos itself for Holding is , as I have mentioned earlier , above the game. It is pardonable sacrilege if one mentions him in the context of cricket. Metaphors wither and words retreat to a brooding lack thereof for the discussion on Holding has begun.
Is the universe a mere spatial temporal riddle seeking its measure in the 44 yard run up of the man? that it is and nothing but... holding running into bowl would make time itself tarry and lose count of its spoils.. That stride and then another and then a whole series of them and in the end a silken culmination of the delivery itself..and all so soundless so elegant that the host of angels up above would interpret with prayer the spectacle that God allowed us mortal men. Ever noticed his expression in his run up? So still so calm and smooth like the lake of suicides and he had the air of inevitability about him. Indeed he was Whispering Death. Indeed his craft rhymed with some stanza some line that the cricketing world could not decipher or understand or find. The wind rising a little and then letting its breath straggle in holding's shirt as it would ripple in some sublime rhythm to the steps he would take. How still was his head.. how expectant the battle field. did you know he was unofficially clocked at 102 mph against the wind?
There has been talk of Hadlee. He had everything too. He had the faster delivery and a very awkward bouncer but to me a fast man should go out into the battle field not caring much for stats or the conditions ..he can transcend and surpass on his own.
luckyeddie
Cricket Web Staff Member
Students of fast bowling are invariably former batsmen who have developed their respect for the art by paying close scrutiny to the following:Hit4Six said:thats some deep stuff man really deeeep
a) The ball
b) The pitch
c) Hospital food
in rapid sequence.
After that, you'd be deep.
luckyeddie
Cricket Web Staff Member
On the contrary, Corey, me old mucker.Top_Cat said:Six-feet deep?
Surely to get acquainted with c) you'd have to have NOT paid close enough scrutiny to a) and b)?
I meant that the batsman had ended up inadvertantly scrutinising the ball far too closely indeed for his own good, then followed that up by getting a worm's eye view of the pitch.
C_C
International Captain
When i debate greatest fast bowler, speed to me, is a secondary concern.
In that sense, i debate 'greatest bowlers' in just two categories - spinners and pacers.
My greatest pacers ever list :
1. Malcolm Marshall
2. Imran Khan
3. Curtley Ambrose
4. Glenn McGrath
5. Richard Hadlee
6. Wasim Akram
7. Michael Holding
8. Joel Garner
9. Alan Donald
10. Alan Davidson
In that sense, i debate 'greatest bowlers' in just two categories - spinners and pacers.
My greatest pacers ever list :
1. Malcolm Marshall
2. Imran Khan
3. Curtley Ambrose
4. Glenn McGrath
5. Richard Hadlee
6. Wasim Akram
7. Michael Holding
8. Joel Garner
9. Alan Donald
10. Alan Davidson