Sport Today

        Actually Wasim tends to be vary his pace depending on his
        mood or the situation. He can bowl an opening spell
        in which the ball will thud into the wicketkeeper's
        gloves even if he is 30 yards away. However, he is
        as likely to bowl a mild first spell and make the ball
        absolutely explode off the wicket in his later spells.
        Consistently he does not bowl as quick as he can
        because of the role he plays in the Pakistani side
        as both a stock and shock bowler.  I am almost
        certain that if he was playing for West Indies or
        a team with a pack rather than a pair of genuine
        ***s he would have gone flat out more often.

        Imran said that Wasim was the fastest bowler in the
        Pakistan-West Indies series of 1988 when Marshall, Walsh,
        Ambrose, Bishop, Patrick Patterson, Winston Benjamin, Imran, and
        Jaffer all played. Quite distinguished company would you not say.
        I honestly believed at that time Wasim was the fastest
        bowler in the world.

        Yeah Sanjay is exactly right. Wasim is indeed fast in
        spells> Not consistently as fast as he can be because
        he does not strive for too much but even then he is
        quick enough to be classified as a genuine ***.  
        Wasim and Allan Donald are completely different
        bowlers. Waqar Younus is more in Donald's mould.
        Donald and Waqar tend to blast the batsmen out whereas
        Wasim is less likely to blast them out, and more
        likely to prise them out with his Pandora like
        bowling repetoire. Each one unique but extremly
        lethal. As Ambrose says, "Waqar is very fast but
        Wasim can do things with the ball..." and he demonstrates
        this with contortions of his wrist and hands and fingers....

        Imran's 1982-83 series bowling was perhaps the most
        brilliantly consistent fast bowling that has ever been
        put on display. A friend of mine told me that Sunil
        said," People talk about Holding's 14 wickets on that
        dead track at the Oval, but they should really see
        this performance by Imran...." Imran in 1978
        was a tearaway but Wasim of 1988-1990 definitely
        matches him for pace in certain spells, if not
        consistently.

        See Wasim has really been ravaged by injuries and
        definitely if he wants a longer career he will
        have to think about conserving his body. However,
        that will not really take much away from his bowling.
        His variety will allow him to do that. What still
        bugs me is the fact that in his attempt to do
        too much with the ball Wasim does not consistently have
        the pin point control of a Richard Hadlee. Anyways,
        who I am to comment on his game. After all he knows
        his game better than amybody else

Wasim was clocked at 144 km/h (90 mph) in South Africa in 1993 when he was
certainly not as quick as he used to be. All this with a remarkably short
run up. Wasim is an enigma and certainly the greatest left arm pace
bowler of all times.

Regards

Shariq

:       Imran said that Wasim was the fastest bowler in the
:       Pakistan-West Indies series of 1988 when Marshall, Walsh,
:       Ambrose, Bishop, Patrick Patterson, Winston Benjamin, Imran, and
:       Jaffer all played. Quite distinguished company would you not say.
:       I honestly believed at that time Wasim was the fastest
:       bowler in the world.

-------
If you mean what Imran said in 'All-Round View', then he said that
Wasim bowled what was "possibly the fastest spell of the series" in
the Barbados test. Still pretty respectable, but quite different from
what you say.

With Akram, I honestly don't think his pace (alone) matters so much.
With say, Patterson, it would be different, because if you took his pace
away, there was little else in his bowling. Akram on the other hand, is
so much more than just fast... I personally don't think he can match
Patterson or Bishop for sheer speed, but is a better bowler than both.

Win or lose, forever Windies.
Venky (Venkatesh Sridharan).

Kapil was never a fast bowler right. Akram on the other hand can be
really quick on occasions. I have seen Akram bowl really quick and
on most of these times he generally pitches it too short.
Akram is much more deadly when he bowls his fast medium to medium
deliveries.

Imran has , probably still has a fierce loyalty to his country and his
team mates. This attitude which helped him make his winning team can
also be very biased . I really don't think Akram at his fastest can be
compared to either Bishop or Marshall at their fastest. ( I haven't
seen Holding at his fastest btw )  

In 1983 it certainly wasn't pace that killed the Indian batsmen. If you
remember nearly every innings of India's followed the same pattern. ie
Either Imran or his opening partner used to take 1,2 early wickets. Then
there used to be a great fight back generally by Gavasker and Amarnath.
and then come after tea, Imran used to return with the old ball and
make it swing from one end of the ground to the other ( I am not joking
here , I saw it ) . And that was what killed the Indian middle order and late
.

And Wasim too.

U know what shereque:

I've been thinking about it for a while now, and when u
prompted me, I decided to 'just do it'.  The psychiatrist
examined my head from a multitude of angles for a long
time.  Finally, he walked out of the room without saying a word
after which I heard a gunshot.  Poor ***.

Anyway, u seem to be jacking off too much these days.  It's
making u dizzy, isn't it?  I said that Wasim is capable of
producing very fast deliveries on occasion.  In Tests, he is
usually quite fast during his opening spell, and later that pace
is not seen again very often during the innings.  Kapil was a
fast medium bowler who on occasion could pull out a real fast
one, perhaps not as fast as WA, but fast nonethless.

As for ur statement comparing WA's speed to Holding, Marshall
and, gasp, Patterson (oh boy), I'd say I can recommend a good

Ever heard of Alan Davidson?
 186 wickets at 20. Contemporary of Richie Benaud. Played in the first tied
test.

In the early 80s he took Mike Witney aside and told him to develop an
in***. To demonstrate he took off his jacket, picked up a ball ran in
without measuring his run, bowled an inswinging yorker which cartwheeled the
single stump out of the ground. That was about 20 years after retirement.

Saying that I'd rate Akram as the second best quick in the world at the
minute, behind Ambrose, and one of the top 10 or so I've seen.

****************************************************************************
The Politician's Slogan
'You can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all
of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time.
Fortunately only a simple majority is required.'
****************************************************************************

Mad Hamish

Hamish Laws

: Imran has , probably still has a fierce loyalty to his country and his
: team mates. This attitude which helped him make his winning team can
: also be very biased . I really don't think Akram at his fastest can be
: compared to either Bishop or Marshall at their fastest. ( I haven't
: seen Holding at his fastest btw )  

I have seen Holding at his fastest in 1976 against India in Port of Spain
which India won chasing 406 in the fourth innings.  There is actually a two
hour film on it produced by Raju Bharatan.
According to Vishwanath ( who scored 112) Holding's bowling was THE fastest he
has seen in his life.
According to him it was even faster than Thompson of 1977-78 and Imran of
1978 and Andy Roberts of 1974-75.  He also said Imran of 1982-83 was decidely
slower than Imran of 1978.  Anyhow I don't think any of the modern day
bowlers can bowl as fast as Holding.   There are two more incidents which
confirms Holding's incredible pace.  
  (1)  His one over to Boycott in the 1981 test in Barbadoes or Jamaica.
  Whoever saw it believed that he was bowling at unbelievable pace.  It is
  reported that Boycott did not see one delivery of that over.
  (2)  Holding's spell in some Kerry packer match.  Imran mentioned in his
  book that such was his speed that all batsman preferred Reborts (??) in
  order to get away from Holding.

:In 1983 it certainly wasn't pace that killed the Indian batsmen. If you
:remember nearly every innings of India's followed the same pattern. ie
:Either Imran or his opening partner used to take 1,2 early wickets. Then
:there used to be a great fight back generally by Gavasker and Amarnath.
:and then come after tea, Imran used to return with the old ball and
:make it swing from one end of the ground to the other ( I am not joking
:here , I saw it ) . And that was what killed the Indian middle order and late

Yes.  What a great bowling performance by Imran.  Vishwanath was literally
***d by Imran.  Vishy did admit that no one moved the ball to that extent as
Imran did in 1982-83.

:>Wasim was clocked at 144 km/h (90 mph) in South Africa in 1993 when he was
:>certainly not as quick as he used to be. All this with a remarkably short
:>run up. Wasim is an enigma and certainly the greatest left arm pace
:>bowler of all times.
:Ever heard of Alan Davidson?
:186 wickets at 20. Contemporary of Richie Benaud. Played in the first tied
:test.
:In the early 80s he took Mike Witney aside and told him to develop an
:in***. To demonstrate he took off his jacket, picked up a ball ran in
:without measuring his run, bowled an inswinging yorker which cartwheeled the
:single stump out of the ground. That was about 20 years after retirement.
:Saying that I'd rate Akram as the second best quick in the world at the
:minute, behind Ambrose, and one of the top 10 or so I've seen.

Both Akram and Alan Davidson are great.  We can't compare the two as they
played in totally different era.  Had they been comtemporaries and played in
similar conditions then I would have compared them.

Regarding Wasim's speed I doubt the above statement that Wasim was bowling at
90 mph in 1993.  Wasim at his fastest in India in 1987 was decidely slower
then 90 mph.  I would his speed to around 85 mph.  The trouble with clocking
the ball in one day matches is the faulty technique which leads to erronous
conclusion.

Ravi Krishna told us:

Now that's what I call ungentlemanly conduct.

Cheers

Mike

Shouldn't he have been no-balled then? :-)

--

Cheers

Christian Kelly

"His manuscript was both good and original, but the part that was good
was not original, and the part that was original was not good."