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Do you know who is the fastest bowler in history of world Cricket? Recently I have tried to find the answer of this question on internet. I saw several videos, read the achieves of various new papers and magazines and finally got the information that Jeff Thomson and Shoaib Akhtar are considered as the world’s fastest bowlers. Competing in a 1978 fast bowling contest that included many of the leading bowlers in the world, Thomson came first with a delivery clocked at 147.9 km/h, ahead of Michael Holding (141.3 km/h) and Imran Khan (139.7 km/h). In 1975 during a test match, he was timed using high-speed cameras at 160.45 km/h and then the following year he was timed at 160.58 km/h using conventional radar. Australian wicket-keeper Rod Marsh kept wicket to Thomson for most of his Test career and claimed that Thomson bowled upto speed of 180 km/h which is much greater than the present recorded speed on bowling of Shoaib Akhtar. But there is no recorded proof of Thomson bowling at the speed of 180 km/h.

Shoaib, also known as Rawalpindi Express, set a world record by delivering a ball with speed more than 100mph (160 km/h) twice. I will never forget his first encounter with Sachin Tendulkar in which Shoaib bowled him for the first ball he delivered to Sachin. His contemporary Brett Lee also made new records in fast bowling with deliveries upto speed of 157.4 km/h.

See the fast bowling of Jeff Thomson

See the fast bowling of Shoaib Akhtar