Quickest Bowlers? Today or Yesteryear?

Which bowlers are quicker?

  • Today

    Votes: 25 36.8%

  • Yesteryear

    Votes: 22 32.4%

  • About the same over time

    Votes: 21 30.9%
  • Total voters
    68

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sherb said:
Lillee was ferocious pre his back injury.

When he took 8-29 against RoW, that included taking 6-0. He went from 2-29 to 8-29. It was just amazing.
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There's a photo of Dk on the front of the 1972 ABC Cricket book, and his action is like nothing I can remember seeing from Lillee, he seems far more front on.
s-l500.jpg

I always think of Lillee at his point of delivery as staring over his left shoulder. Funny they want kids to bowl with a more front on action to lessen the chance of injury yet Lillee, if this picture is anything to go by developed a far more side on action to remedy his injury.
 
Drugs Are Bad Mackay? said:
I'd love to see some split screen footage of bowlers from the 70s and 80s compared with now
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Can't remember where, but I swear I recall seeing some analysis of footage of Larwood where they determined he was bowling in the mid-130's. If it was just some random delivery I'd assume he'd be able to get it up to the 140's.
 
Gough said:
There's a photo of Dk on the front of the 1972 ABC Cricket book, and his action is like nothing I can remember seeing from Lillee, he seems far more front on.
s-l500.jpg

I always think of Lillee at his point of delivery as staring over his left shoulder. Funny they want kids to bowl with a more front on action to lessen the chance of injury yet Lillee, if this picture is anything to go by developed a far more side on action to remedy his injury.
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I think the thing with bowling actions I'd you need to be completely one or completely the other ie completely side on or completely front on. The issue is when blokes have mixed actions where their hips are side on but torso and shoulders are front on and the stress that goes through the back in that scenario is pretty extreme
 

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Adelaide Hawk said:
A mate of mine played for SA, and a handful of Tests for Australia. He genuinely loved facing quick bowlers. He came back from Perth having faced Lillee and remarked if bowlers were any quicker than Lillee, he may think about retiring. Then he travelled to Brisbane to face Thommo at the Gabba. When he returned, all he would say was, "I may have to retire, Thommo seemed 2 yards quicker than Lillee".
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A fella I worked with had his 1st grade debut for Western Suburbs as a 18 year old opening batsman. Of course they were playing Bankstown with Thomson and Pascoe opening. He said he didn't see anything and while he was terrified of getting hit by Thomson, he didn't feel that Thommo was actually trying to kill him, but he was sure that Pascoe was.
 
TigerCraig said:
A fella I worked with had his 1st grade debut for Western Suburbs as a 18 year old opening batsman. Of course they were playing Bankstown with Thomson and Pascoe opening. He said he didn't see anything and while he was terrified of getting hit by Thomson, he didn't feel that Thommo was actually trying to kill him, but he was sure that Pascoe was.
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He's just lucky he wasn't a Pom. Then they'd both be trying to kill him!
 
TigerCraig said:
A fella I worked with had his 1st grade debut for Western Suburbs as a 18 year old opening batsman. Of course they were playing Bankstown with Thomson and Pascoe opening. He said he didn't see anything and while he was terrified of getting hit by Thomson, he didn't feel that Thommo was actually trying to kill him, but he was sure that Pascoe was.
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Read in a book by Rod Marsh that Pascoe was getting smashed by Kim Hughes in a domestic game and couldn't intimidate him with the bouncer so he deliberately gave him a full pelt beamer.
 
TigerCraig said:
A fella I worked with had his 1st grade debut for Western Suburbs as a 18 year old opening batsman. Of course they were playing Bankstown with Thomson and Pascoe opening. He said he didn't see anything and while he was terrified of getting hit by Thomson, he didn't feel that Thommo was actually trying to kill him, but he was sure that Pascoe was.
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Yeah, Pascoe nowhere near as fast but crazy bastard and would get angry easier.
If Thommo wanted to hurt someone he would be more into breaking their toes than killing them but they probably had to piss him off first. Seems fairly friendly guy in general.
 
Papa G said:
Holy s**t. That second delivery. He really could have killed him. Very courageous from Close.
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Like the old saying goes if it misses you be an inch it may as well be 20 , that last ball that squares him up that he wears in the midriff is nasty

Amazing effort from a guy in his 40s and well past his prime. Incredibly courage's stuff
 
Richard Pryor said:


Can't remember where, but I swear I recall seeing some analysis of footage of Larwood where they determined he was bowling in the mid-130's. If it was just some random delivery I'd assume he'd be able to get it up to the 140's.
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Off old footage they estimated him being around 90mph , so pretty close to that
 
Adelaide Hawk said:
It's interesting to note with Thommo that when he was at his quickest (pre-shoulder injury), as he says he just shuffled in and went 'wang'. Very little run up, his speed came all from the delivery stride, and extra pace came from the way the ball slid off the pitch rather than bounced. You'll notice that later in his career, he began running in faster and longer in an attempt to generate more pace. The added bonus of having the ball behind his back in his delivery stride wouldn't have helped the batsman either.

A mate of mine played for SA, and a handful of Tests for Australia. He genuinely loved facing quick bowlers. He came back from Perth having faced Lillee and remarked if bowlers were any quicker than Lillee, he may think about retiring. Then he travelled to Brisbane to face Thommo at the Gabba. When he returned, all he would say was, "I may have to retire, Thommo seemed 2 yards quicker than Lillee".
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Wasn't Rick Darling was it? He was a bloke who loved taking on the quicks and wore a couple of very nasty ones because of it.

Pre shoulder injury Thommo is in a class of his own in this discussion, everyone else is fighting it out for second.
 

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Gough said:
There's a photo of Dk on the front of the 1972 ABC Cricket book, and his action is like nothing I can remember seeing from Lillee, he seems far more front on.
s-l500.jpg

I always think of Lillee at his point of delivery as staring over his left shoulder. Funny they want kids to bowl with a more front on action to lessen the chance of injury yet Lillee, if this picture is anything to go by developed a far more side on action to remedy his injury.
Click to expand...

I think the shot might just be a promotional one (ie. he's just doing it for show rather than with a quivering batsman at the other end).
 
It would be interesting to know just how fast Thomson really was pre-injury. If they reckon he was bowling 160 after it, might he have touched 170 pre-injury?
 
krisholio14 said:
Wasn't Rick Darling was it? He was a bloke who loved taking on the quicks and wore a couple of very nasty ones because of it.

Pre shoulder injury Thommo is in a class of his own in this discussion, everyone else is fighting it out for second.
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It would appear could only be Woodcock or Darling.
 
Gough said:
Terminator Terry camped out inside Gooch's head during the summer of '89.
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Gooch's answering machine at home at the time - "Hi it's Graham. I'm out at the moment, probably LBW Alderman".

It's probably apocryphal to be honest, but it never fails to raise a smile in me when I think of it.
 
krisholio14 said:
It's been estimated he was nudging 180km. That's beyond express pace. That's a genuine rocket lol.
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I do find that a bit questionable.

How can one person have bowled nigh on 20km/h faster than anyone else has managed?

Put it this way, people like Tait/Lee/Akhtar/Starc have all managed to get to 160-161, but none of them have managed to get even 2-3 faster than that and push 163-164.

And yet Thomson gave 180 a nudge? Hmm.
 
footyfan78 said:
Pretty much this.
There is no reason why any era in our lifetime would be quicker than the other.
However, having watched cricket since late 1977 with my introduction to the game being World Series Cricket itself, that era from summer of 77 until early 1980's had the most express bowlers at the one time running around world cricket. No real reason why, just cycles. There are always quicker bowlers around, just happens that had the most at once.

Off top of my head I would count a dozen you would count as express pace bowlers at their quickest in those years.

After that your normal fast bowlers of Geoff Lawson, Bob Willis and Pascoe. Those three may have touched 150 km/h at the quickest. Take not I am making my comments with respect to just my own sense of detecting how quick they were in relation to others. I also never saw Thommo at his quickest as he had shoulder surgery that slowed him down to just fast in the end rather than the speeds he must habe been up to in mid 70's that can be seen on video but no radar guns then to readily have a speed.
My guess is he was around 170 km/h in mid 70's and no one we seen would be quicker.
Guys like Brett Lee and Akhtar were around when radar guns were common and could get it jut over 160km/h. Same with Shaun Tait. Lillee prior to back injuries would have been in the pace range and probably Michael Holding a little quicker but Thommo for my in league of his own. He was a freak like Usain Bolt to sprinting how been more recently.

But if we look at guys like Starc, Mitchell Johnson and Dale Steyn that probably that quickest of more recent times, most of them probably get over 155km/h at quickest but just short of 160 km/h imo. Shaun Tait quicker than those 3 but essentially he really did not have a Test career of note and settled for shorter version of the games.
Starc, Johnson and Steyn probably around the pace of Hogg, Croft and Imran Khan of early 1980's and those 3 were not even in the top half dozen speed merchants of their time, even though they were bloody fast. It was just a crazy era.


Very Fast at their top speed (express pace)
Jeff Thomson
Michael Holding
Malcolm Marshall
Dennis Lillee
Andy Roberts
Joel Garner
Garth Le Roux
Patrick Patterson
Imran Khan (Starc around this pace)
Colin Croft (M Johnson around this pace)
Rodney Hogg (Steyn around this pace)
Wayne Daniel
Craig McDermott
Sylvester Clarke

Fast Bowlers (could probably reach 150km/h but very rarely over it)
Lenny Pascoe
Geoff Lawson
Richard Hadlee
Mike Proctor
Alan Hurst
Bob Willis
Carl Rackemann
Rod McCurdy
Winston Davis

I believe Frank Tyson of England and Harold Larwood of much earlier eras sound like they were very fast too. I suspect from hearing older gentleman commentating in late 70's that aw Tyson he may well have been around the pace of Malcolm Marshall and Shaun Tait or maybe even quicker up near Michael Holding territory.
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Thompson was nowhere near 170km per hour...... that is just ridiculous. Top clip would've been around 155 max I reckon.
 
Papa G said:
Holy s**t. That second delivery. He really could have killed him. Very courageous from Close.
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I just can't believe they wore that heat without a helmet. It's unbelievable that Phillip Hughes was killed wearing a helmet, yet for decades these guys faced heat far faster than what Abbott slung down.

That second delivery was scary, he actually took his eye off it for a millisecond.
 
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