modeechii

I take your point though the odds are it wouldn't've been his fastest ever ball. As for Lillee what he actually said was that the delivery he felt he had bowled fastest turned out to be the slowest one timed when the results came through, demonstrating that his pace was more to do with rhythm than effort.

I think we generally agree. I suspect Thommo may have hit 101 ,102 or thereabouts a few times but no more.

prashiyer, during the controlled study done in 1976 in which Lillee clocked 154.8 k (mentioned by the narrator here) John Snow clocked 138.7 kmh (86.2mph) though he was 35 yrs old by then. Proctor was in the 1979 fastest bowler comp & measured 128.6 (79.87 mph) on a day when most speeds were low & not 'out of the hand ' as such. Wes hall was once clocked in practice in the 1960's at 91mph but this is generally not considered a reliable measurement. Don't know of anything for Pollock.

Yep Barry Richards was amazing. Whilst living in Sydney Australia in the late 70's I saw him play a number of times in world series cricket facing awesome bowlers like Holding, Roberts, Lillee, Garner & others & he made it look easy. The only other batsman at the time to compare with him was also called Richards ( Viv) !!

Thomson was clocked 3 times. In 1975 in a test match v W.Indies his fastest of about 8 balls measured was 99.7mph (160.45kmh) using high speed cameras. In 1976 he was timed in nets with radar of the type then in use in U.S. baseball at 99.8mph. In1979 (2 years after his shoulder injury) he was timed in fastest bowler comp using high speed cameras at just under 92mph. These are recognised as reliable & the 1st & last are talked of in vid "Lillee & Thomson bowling speeds" on youtube.

I reckon he may been thinking of Eddie Gilbert the aboriginal fast bowler of the 30's who Bradman rated as the quickest he had ever faced.

Thomson at his fastest (before his shoulder injury at the end of '76) was probably the fastest of the era & maybe ever but Holding was not far behind in speed & had more variety making him more adaptable & consistently effective ....Holding learnt alot from bowling with the often

under-rated Andy Roberts .