Yes, as the title suggests, this is a three-way comparison to decide the best fast bowler the world has ever seen. I’d like to clarify at first that if it weren’t for concern about the length of the article, I would include a few more bowlers on the list for comparison. This includes Michael Holding, Malcolm Marshall, Fred Truman, Alan Donald, etc. There are some bowlers who were as good as these three but do not qualify as fast bowlers, for example Richard Hadley. India produced a great medium fast bowler in Kapildev. He used to say that the only thing missing from his directory was genuine rhythm. I mean genuine pace when I say a fast bowler, which means that the bowler can consistently throw more than 143 km (90 miles) / hour. There’s nothing like a genuine beat to boost your bowling aspirations. The world has seen several good bowlers who were not penetrating enough when necessary because they lacked the rhythm to destroy the opposition a sufficient number of times.

Big Curtly Ambrose was the most powerful fast bowler I have ever seen. He could rip the heart out of his batting lineup with a variety of arsenal that is unparalleled in cricket history. The initial impression someone got when seeing Ambrose for the first time was that this guy means bouncing. On the green peaks of Kingston, it would be on your chin all the time. But that wasn’t always the case for Ambrose. Watch the videos of his golden years and you can see a smart bowler changing his length, controlling the amount of bounce to make the ball swing in and out to fool the batsman. This does not mean that it cannot bounce. Rest assured, when necessary, you will be able to bend your back and listen to music from your chin high and clear. That incredible spell at WACA against Australia when he took 7 wickets for 1 run just shows the man’s talent at its best. The yorkers, in swinging deliveries, the steep bouncing leg cutters; it was all there to see. He’s 6 feet 6 inches tall, which naturally forced the hitter’s thought to move with his back foot. He would see this smartly and changed the way he threw the ball to a slightly slower delivery on the swing without bouncing off the top of the stumps and catching the LBW batter. However, he was lucky to find a patient and a smart partner on the other end of Courtney Walsh who could keep working day after day and was a bad client in his own right. Accurate, unplayable, and simply unstoppable when in Sir Curtly Ambrose’s way! A bowler every captain dreams of and the mere ability to cut through opponents defending a small score was a nightmare for opponents. It seemed as if he specialized in throwing oppositions on low-scoring issues.

Dennis Lille was a tough, mean and aggressive fast bowler. When the history of fast bowling is written, it will begin and end with Lille. Absolutely a perfect fast bowler! When it comes to Australian cricket, a discussion about sledding is not far off and Lille earned a triple doctorate in it. This also means various incidents against opponents. The one against Javed Miandad comes to mind immediately and there were many others. He said in one of his interviews that he was willing to die in the field to get his window. That pretty much sums up his approach. However, unfortunately, he is remembered more for his antiques in the field than for the large exhibits of fast bowling that he produced. For all Australians, winning the Ashes is the main goal. And England has suffered greatly at the hands of Lille in this endeavor. Once they decided to prepare tame ground for Australia on their visit to the UK, thinking this will give them a chance against the great bowler who was supported by another even faster and badder bowler named Jeff Thompson. But it didn’t quite happen as Lille slowed down a bit, focused on the bowling cutters moving both ways and once again cut the UK batting in half by taking fifths in both innings to win the match for Australia. The West Indies team in the 70s under Clive Lloyd was considered one of the best teams of all time with many great players. But this team suffered a humiliating defeat in the Test series 1-5 in 1976 while playing for the Frank Worrel Trophy. The main destroyers were Lille and Thompson. This duo is also regarded as the best pair of fast bowls of all time. The worst part from a hitting point of view was that he could also cast long spells and was just with you the whole time with no respite. Caught Marsh bowled Lille was a term that was established during this period where the wicketkeeper skillfully supported the great bowler to achieve victories. There used to be great discussions among the Brits on how to tackle the rhythm duo of Lille and Thompson and the famous joke went around at the time. An elderly woman who overheard the arguments asked how England’s hitters could have been traumatized by a woman named Lillian Thompson. He had to endure many career-threatening injuries at the same time. But thanks to vigorous recovery programs, he revitalized his career and came out more determined, albeit at a slightly slower pace.

I first saw Wasim Akram in 1985 in Australia at the Benson Hedges Cup which, by the way, India won. At that time, there was little first-class infrastructure in Pakistan and Pak captains and older players used to pick up talented cricketers from the nets. Javed Miandad had chosen this awkward left arm pacemaker and my first reaction was what kind of bowling action is that? But one thing clearly remarkable was that he was an uncomfortable customer from a hitter’s point of view. Like the two stalwarts mentioned above, he was versatile. He could throw six different balls in one round without changing his expression. He was called the sultan of swing. A true teacher! His yorkers and in dippers were not only effective, they were delivered with such precision that the clean bowler left the crease with an air of disbelief on his face. How the hell could delivery swing like this and so late? This was the time when the world was realizing the reverse swing. Wasim was also the best hitter of these three and was a true all-rounder. He was instrumental in Pakistan’s first world cup victory in 1992. He literally carried Pakistani bowling on his shoulders with an injured fast bowler Waqar Younus and his past best Imran Khan. The short run to the crease and the intense bowling action didn’t give the hitters time to react. To top it off, the delivery itself was delayed and moved in rhythm. If you didn’t have the technique to deal with this kind of hostile swing, you were pretty much dead, as K Srikant discovered on the 1989-1990 Pakistan tour of India. In my opinion, he was the best one-day international bowler of all time due to his ability to quickly restrict the batting team to a space of a few overs. He made 23 sets from four wickets in ODI cricket. He also scored 4 hat-tricks in international cricket, 2 in tryouts, and 2 in ODI. He also has a double hundred match test to his credit. An amazing talent and one of the best bowlers the world has ever seen.

Now what is my take on who is the best fast bowler of all? At ODI, I think Wasim Akram is the clear number one with no competition. In tryouts, I’ll go with Curtly Ambrose and Dennis Lille as number one combined. I can’t really say which one was better and who I will pick on my team. They bowled at different times and were great players in every aspect. One talked a lot and the other not much, that was probably the only clear difference. But terrifying bowlers anyway! Wasim Akram will be a close third in testing in my opinion.