Jeff Thomson’s top 10 fast bowlers of all time
Jeff Thomson’s exclusive list of cricket’s most terrifying quicks sees his old partner in fear, Dennis Lillee, high up the ranks. But it’s a West Indian legend he names the greatest of them all.
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When I talk great fast bowlers I talk fear.
In sorting out my top 10 quicks of the last 50 years I went for the type of bowlers batsmen like facing least – quick, dangerous and accurate. Nasty fasties.
There’s no Poms on my list – and I won’t apologise for that.
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I know people will say I should have included Jimmy Anderson who has taken 600 Test wickets but I just couldn’t have him.
He may be a decent swing bowler but on the Scare Scale he would not have frightened me – and I’m a tailender.
So a drum roll please for …
10 Glenn McGrath (Australia)
Most of the names above him blasted out batsmen – he strangled them. Some will say given his record he should have been higher and I get that. Pace wise he was not quite up with some others on the list. That slightly dimmed the fear factor but I must give him great credit because he was one of most efficient, effective bowlers of all time.
9 Michael Holding (West Indies)
The smoothest action of the lot but would have got a lot more wickets if he wasn’t so nice. A bit like Carl Rackemann in that he tried to look angry but it just wasn’t him. Batsmen can consider themselves lucky he wasn’t a nasty piece of work because he could have been something else.
8 Joel Garner (West Indies)
Could be the scariest of the lot on his day when he would be as quick as anyone. He used to bring me bottles of rum from the West Indies thinking it might slow me down but it actually fired me up. Big Bird was just a nightmare because in facing this giant of a man it was almost as if the ball was being dropped from a tall building.
I lost count of the amount of times I heard batsmen come back to the dressing room after facing Joel and say “I just couldn’t do anything with him … he kept hitting high on the bat … he gave me nothing.’’ Had a Test bowling average of 20.97 per wicket. Enough said.
7 Dale Steyn (South Africa)
Swung the ball at great pace. Had a crazy-eyed stare which didn’t go astray in the intimidation department either. I sense he was the quick of his generation batsmen least enjoyed facing. That counts.
6 Curtly Ambrose (West Indies)
Bounce is a lethal weapon for any fast man and he got it as much as anyone. Add pace and batsmen have got serious problems. Viv Richards once said Curtly had one of the biggest hearts he’s seen. Aggressive in a different sort of way, he deliberately didn’t talk to opponents but didn’t have to. The quality of his work did the trick.
5 Allan Donald (South Africa)
Great action, aggressive, as quick as anybody else on this list and a true athlete, he had everything I look for in a fast bowler. Took 330 Test wickets but would have been hundreds more had the first half of his career not been lost to the apartheid era in South Africa. I liked his body language and his stare. Just having him armed and dangerous did a lot for the confidence of South African teams in the early post-apartheid era.
4 Richard Hadlee (New Zealand)
Had a healthy ego and carried a team of average bowlers but that also helped him because it meant he got the chance to bowl more. Bowled a quick bouncer, could seam and swing the ball at will and another with great endurance who bowled a million overs in county cricket and somehow just kept going.
3 Dennis Lillee (Australia)
Drive, ego, determination. And courage. He had back injuries that could have left him in a wheelchair. When they were tinkering with his back no-one knew much at all about back surgery.
The worse the scenario the harder he tried.
The main difference between Dennis and the top two was that he never played a Test in India and just three Tests (for three wickets) in Pakistan.
We were mates and still are. But we also drove each other. If he got wickets I was desperate to match him and vice versa.
2 Wasim Akram (Pakistan)
Where do we start? Sizzling pace delivered with a left armed angle via an action so well grooved he could have bowled blindfolded. He made the ball “talk’’ more than anyone else on this list yet the quality I admired most of all was his endurance. He bowled quick for 20 years, taking more than 1000 first class wickets playing for English counties and his country. He played 356 ODIs. A machine.
1 Malcolm Marshall (West Indies)
My first pick during my playing days and nothing I have seen since has changed my belief that he is the best fast bowler the game has seen in the last 50 years – perhaps ever. He just had it all – blistering pace, movement both ways and a great cricket brain which enabled him to come up with plans that made the most of his skills.
Could bowl anywhere. Averaged 24 per wicket in India and 21 in Pakistan. Incredible.
To boot he is the nicest bloke of the lot of them. A gentleman fast bowler – there aren’t many of them!
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Originally published as Jeff Thomson’s top 10 fast bowlers of all time
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