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April 13, 2009
Posted on 04/13/2009 in Extras
Left-Arm Fast bowlers

From Brendan Layton, Australia

They are the mythical bunch that is a diamond dozen, but those who have made it to the top have shone as some of the finest bowlers of the game. Mitchell Johnson has blown his way to the top of Australia's bowling attack following a humble start, and Zaheer Khan has emerged from a long and difficult apprenticeship to be India's top bowler. But the main reason they cause excitement is that they are left-arm quicks, and can do things a right-arm bowler would dream about.

The history of left-arm quicks traces all the way back to the very first Test, where England fielded Tom Emmett, a bluff Yorkshire professional who could bowl very fast on his day. Australia's attack, missing Fred Spofforth, opened the bowling with John Hodges, a Victorian bookmaker who played the first two Tests and never played Test cricket again. On the return match in England, Fred Spofforth was supported by Frank Allen, once hailed 'the bowler of the century', and a man who was allegedly a gargantuan swinger of the ball. He took 4/80 in the match as Spofforth annihilated England.

England would tend to rely on left arm orthodox bowlers in its early history, but they did produce an all-rounder who could be dangerous on his day in the form of George Hirst, who achieved more with the bat than the ball in his few Test appearances. More successful was Jack Ferris, who teamed up with Charlie Turner to form one of the most lethal partnerships in Test cricket history. Ferris' career was blighted by the weakness of the Australian batting at the time, and eventually left to play in England as a professional.

When South Africa initially came into the Test arena, they struggled to match the strong Australian and English teams, but they did have Arthur 'Dave' Nourse, a left-arm swing bowler who was the 'Grand Old Man of South African Cricket'. In the late 1920's, England unearthed a young lad from Nottinghamshire who would make his mark a few years later as the accomplice of one Harold Larwood. Bill Voce, although yards slower than his older partner, was a key figure in Bodyline where he would set the leg trap and use his awkward angle and great height to create havoc and a long run of bruises. He would have sporadic success in his career, and his last tour with Wally Hammond's team in 1946/47 to Australia when he was long past his peak was a disaster.

After World War II Australia unearthed a candidate for one of the all-time left-armers in Bill Johnston, a droll Victorian who had been a spin bowler before he turned to swing. He took 16 wickets against India in his debut Test series and then in the next five took at least 20 wickets. Not bad, especially when you consider that he was competing with Ray Lindwall and Keith Miller for the new ball.

Frank Worrell, a much-underrated bowler due to his batting talent, was often called upon to open the bowling for the West Indies as the struggled to find the next Learie Constantine. He took a best of 7/70, but a younger all-rounder from Barbados would supersede him as an all-rounder and player. Garry Sobers, arguably the greatest all-rounder of them all, took 235 wickets bowling swing, genuinely fast, or any type of spin he felt like.

When Australia toured South Africa in 1957/58, a lot of their hopes were pinned on Alan Davidson, who was finally being given the new ball after having to wait behind the impenetrable Lindwall/Miller/Johnston combination. He was acknowledged as a master bowler, but had played 12 Tests and had taken an unremarkable 16 wickets at 34.06. In the next 32 Tests he took 170 wickets at under 20 to reduce that average to 20.53. Doing that he established himself as the finest left-arm quick of that time, and he is only challenged as the greatest of them all by one man.

South Africa had developed Trevor Goddard as a useful all-rounder who at times opened the batting and the bowling for his country. When the arrival of some genuinely fast men gave him better support, the ferocious South African team of the 60's was born. The generation gap between the next gifted lefties was bridged by Richard Collinge, a gigantic but gentle swing bowler whose best was overshadowed by Richard Hadlee, but always gave his best for New Zealand.

Lefties struggled to make an impact in the 70's. Bernard Julien was spoken of as another Sobers but failed to have an impact. John Lever played 21 tests as a classy swing bowler, but had to shake rumours he used slave or something similar to get swing. Australia produced two with vastly different careers. Gary Gilmour was a spectacular swing bowler and hard hitting batsman who produced his best in the one day game. He struggled later in his career as the increasing professionalism left players of his ilk in the cold. Geoff Dymock, a maths teacher who struggled with remote postings for many years, was a determined, hard-working bowler who improved to such a state in his early 30's that he was considered good enough to partner Dennis Lillee during the Post-WSC reunion. He was the first person to dismiss all 11 batsmen in a team at Green Park in India in a match his batsmen still managed to lose.

In the 80's there was little to be seen of the left-arm quick, and it was thought they had gone out of fashion as quick as the Malcolm Marshall bouncer. Then suddenly out of Pakistan came a young man with a whippy action that could bowl fast and swing the ball both ways alarmingly late. Wasim Akram took 5/56 in his second Test and showed signs of greatness. At the turn of the decade, he was acknowledged the finest fast bowler in the world, even better than Windies beanpoles Curtley Ambrose and Courtney Walsh. Australian captain Mark Taylor, a man who managed a century against Akram hailed him as the most difficult bowler he had ever faced, and much better than any West Indian of the time. His record is formidable: 414 wickets at 23.62. He suffered during his career from a myriad of scandals, and late in his career he lost a lot of the zip that made him the most feared bowler in the world. That said, in my opinion Wasim Akram is the greatest leftie of them all.

Australia managed to produce a tall, gangling WA quick that could make the ball swing and lift from a good length. Bruce Reid suffered from back problems his entire career, but managed 113 wickets at 24.63, he was no mug when he got it right. Sri Lanka, after initial struggles, unearthed an invulnerable warrior who to this day carries their pace attack. Chaminda Vaas was never lightning fast, but he learned progressively as he went. He forsook pace to become a crafty swing and seam bowler, capable of blowing away teams on helpful pitches and containing batsmen with his accuracy.

Nathan Bracken had been earmarked as the next Bruce Reid when he came through the ranks, but it took a long time to make his mark. And now at 31, and having not played a Test since 2005, a classy swing bowler seems to have cruelly been cast as a limited overs bowler, despite being widely admitted as one of the finest swing bowlers in the world.

But the leftie rides again. Johnson and Zaheer are at the pinnacle of this class at the moment, but South Africa has Wayne Parnell waiting to take the fight. Pakistan's Sohail Tanvair is a wrong-footed and unpredictable quick with strong potential. And there is definitely one out there who could be the next Alan Davidson. The next Wasim Akram. Now that would be a treat.

Comments (41)
Posted by: sami at April 13, 2009 4:58 AM

An excellent article.In my opinion Wasim is the greatest bowler of all times, no body can come close to him. It was so exciting to watch him bowl. A real gladiator of his times. We certainly miss him. Cricket is not the same after him.

Posted by: Zeeshan at April 13, 2009 6:06 AM

Good and informative research really. Wasim Akram no doubt, the greatest left arm fast bowler born till to date.

Posted by: Kaushik Lakshman at April 13, 2009 6:24 AM

Wasim Akram no doubt is the greatest leftie quickie to have played the game. Left arm fast bowlers are much more exciting to watch than the right arm quicks.

Posted by: Pritam at April 13, 2009 6:43 AM

Nice read. To me Wasim Akram and Malcom Marshall are the two greatest fast bowlers from among those I've seen play.

Posted by: Jason at April 13, 2009 6:48 AM

Wasim Akram SHOULD have been the greatest bowler ever. He was still excellent don't get me wrong, but the man could bowl brilliant balls and brilliant spells and yet he couldn't dominate consistently. He often went 'missing', particularly in Test matches. Of course when he found 'it' again, he was awesome. He had so much talent and should have really dominated the game. It also happened with his batting, he was a natural but sometimes he'd just throw it away or wouldn't look interested. He could have been one of the great all-rounders with a bit more application.

Posted by: Nabeel Adeel at April 13, 2009 7:01 AM

Well nice info abt left arm fast bowlers. Just wanted to add that wasim also has a small matter of 502 odi wickets at 23.52. At the end of his career he concentrated on odis more but i dont agree to u saying he lost hiz zip. His pace did come down a little but he could still swing it anyway he wanted, infact he cud swing it twice in one delivery.His yorkers at the death end of odis were lethal even at the end of his career. All apologies to Mcgrath but he was probably the greatest bowler of the previous(last) fast bowlers generation.

Posted by: Riverlime at April 13, 2009 7:11 AM

"in my opinion Wasim Akram is the greatest leftie of them all."
Brendan, you needed to leave out the proviso "in my opinion". I'm West Indian, and there is only one person who I will admit was possibly better than Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum Ambrose in his own era, and that was Toe-crusher Akram.

Posted by: Sekhar at April 13, 2009 8:07 AM

Good one.The Indian team has seen a lot of left arm quickies in the 21st century so far--Zaheer Khan,Irfan Pathan,R P Singh and Ashish Nehra.Only Zaheer has managed to rise above the rest.

Another bowler worth mentioning is Geoff Allott of New Zealand.He was the joint highest wicket taker in the 1999 World Cup along with Shane Warne.

Posted by: v.j.raghunath at April 13, 2009 8:50 AM

no doubt about Wasim Akram and Davidson being the top two amongst the quicks.The first time I saw Davidson bowl,I was amazed at how fluid his action was though he was so broad and heavy.And Akram did so much with his shoulder in the final delivery,you sometimes felt he didn't need a run-up to bowl.
what about the slow left arm orthodox-Rhodes,Mankad,Bedi and Underwood-there was so much guile and flight in their craft

Posted by: Nagarjun at April 13, 2009 8:51 AM

There is a pattern of left-arm quicks generating a lot of excitement and then fading away fast for one reason or another. Too many to be just a coincidence. Just from the last 25 years: Azeem Hafeez, Saleem Jaffer, Brett Schultz, Ashish Nehra, Nuwan Zoysa, Irfan Pathan, RP Singh, Geoff Allott, Brendon Julian...

Posted by: darrel at April 13, 2009 9:17 AM

i thought this article could have done more. it basically just provides a bulleted history of left-arm bowlers. it hardly elaborates on the opening paragraph: 'But the main reason they cause excitement is that they are left-arm quicks, and can do things a right-arm bowler would dream about.' what are these things right-armers dream about? i would've liked to have seen more comparison. that is, an explanation for why lefties are special. it's an interesting subject, but it's execution is less so.

Posted by: George at April 13, 2009 10:06 AM

In My opinion, Alan Davidson is the all time best left arm bowler, followed by Wasim Akram

Posted by: Akber at April 13, 2009 10:32 AM

Wasim bhai to me is the best bowler ever ... (left arm or not) ... the only bowler who can bowl conventional / reverse swing/seam over and around the wicket, with the new/old bowl ... perfect yorkers and highly accurate... multiple hat tricks in both forms of the game ... to me a genius of a bowler ...

Posted by: Pritam at April 13, 2009 11:29 AM

Wasmim akram without doubt was the greatest of his ilk. Nowadays Zaheer stands above the rest as he's more towards being a complete article...conventional and reverse swing and impressive record both on indian flat decks and abroad. However, he has to do that consistently for 2-3 more seasons to be considered amongst great lefties. Mitchell Johnson has pace but he failed the litmus test on Indian tracks, but he's learning fast and who knows what he turns out be in a year or two. The thing that separates Wasmin from others was his ability to produce something special now n then on subcontinental batting tracks....just revisit the video where he setup and removed Dravid in Chennai '99. That was typical Wasim...whether in or out of form You never were certain. Also, in His last ODI he was the only bowler who was treated with respect by Indians In WC'03.

Posted by: emad at April 13, 2009 1:06 PM

Akram was the king of bowlers.Tell me anyone who can bowl better than him or has more variety and control with pace than him.He is the bowler of century and cricket needs players like him to prosper.

Posted by: Prashant at April 13, 2009 1:48 PM

Yup.Wasim was the man.
Yummiest cricketing competition to me was Tendulkar vs Akram. AWEsome!

Posted by: safwan at April 13, 2009 3:21 PM

wasim had a certain genius to him which was unique in a way......it was fun watching him run in and bowl, something u cudnt always say about bowlers of equal class like mcgrath, waqar, donald or ambrose.....perhapsss, wasim wasnt just the best left arm quickie ever, he most possibly was the best fast bowler of all time!

Posted by: Aravind at April 13, 2009 4:27 PM

It's "Dime a dozen" not "Diamond Dozen".

Posted by: shaun at April 13, 2009 4:32 PM

wasim is by far the greatest left arm bowler ever. he is prolly the only fast bowler who would be quaranteed a spot in an all-time world eleven. all the other fast bowling spots in that side could be up for argument but his spot could not be because of his diversity and ability to bowl in all conditions. this just shows the class of the man!!

Posted by: Ni at April 13, 2009 6:02 PM

Where is Chaminda Vaas? Why does he always have to be the forgotten man?

Posted by: sherry at April 13, 2009 6:16 PM

wasim akram arguably the best left arm fast bowler produced by the cricket.

Posted by: prem at April 13, 2009 7:39 PM

Mike Whitney from Australia was a very good fast bowler from Australia..

Posted by: Assad at April 13, 2009 9:51 PM

Regarding Nathan Bracken, please he is not a swing bowler! He just bowls off-cutters and leg-cutters and slower balls.

Posted by: Shyam at April 13, 2009 10:20 PM

In the words of 16-year old Tendulkar (on Akram): "Aapko kaun maar sakta hai - aap to itni achchee bowling kaarte hain." (Nobody can attack your bowling because it's so good!)

Posted by: Amin Aijaz at April 14, 2009 12:35 AM

Akram was by far the best. Something to always watch out for was Tendulkar vs Akram. It's an awesome sight to look at a left armer run in to bowl. Zaheer's action is unique while Johnson is the slinger. Both guys are brilliant for their teams.

Posted by: Bill at April 14, 2009 2:03 AM

I think Mitchell Johnston has the potential to be as good as Wasim Akram and Allan Davidson. He has pace, bounce and "zip" and is learning the art of swing. Like the other 2 masters he also contributes useful runs at number 8 something the likes of Bruce Reid and Zaheer Khan were/are unable to do. I think it's real pity that Irfan Pathan's career has floundered. He could have been anything when he first arrived on the scene but injury, poor form and poor selection policies have hampered his progress.

Posted by: ram at April 14, 2009 2:40 AM

Hi Shyam
Those words by uttered by Tendulkar when he was about to face Abdul Qadir and not against Akram-

Posted by: Mad Hamish at April 14, 2009 3:09 AM

IMO Best left arm fast bowler so far comes down to Wasim or Davidson. Wasim was faster but I get the impression that Davidson was more reliable.
If Johnson can produce more bowling like he did in RSA he could move into contention around the top.

Whitney told a story of his early days in the NSW team when Davidson took him aside and convinced him he needed the inswinger. Davidson ran in, swung the ball in on yorker length and took the single mounted stump out of the ground, he would have been 51 at the time.

As to where Wasim rates compared to other quicks he's certainly top draw. I don't know that he's better than, say, Marshall and Ambrose but he's around the same level as they were.

Posted by: Rehan Visser at April 14, 2009 7:43 AM

This article made me think about something very interesting. I find watching left arm quickies a lot better to watch than their counterparts (as stated in the opening paragraph).

However, as incredible as (and I agree that he was the greatest leftie ever) Wasim Akram was, I still wouldn't rate him as the very best ever. It's open to debate whether Akram was as good as Lillee, Marshall, Hadlee, and in the earlier days Spofforth and Trueman. Even Waqar Younis was on par with Akram (with no disregard to Waqar - he was brilliant).

Posted by: sami at April 14, 2009 11:22 AM

One thing all cricket fans must take case of is that we should not rate the new players so quickly with all time greats. What i feel that when a new player comes and performs in a series or two, people start to rate and compare him with all time greats. It not only pressurizes a young player but is also not a right thing to do

Posted by: john arthur at April 14, 2009 11:45 AM

VERY poorly researched article - Khan superior to the other current Indian quicks - only Layton thinks so - Davidson wasnt in same league as Reid - Davo say so himself - Davo played on more bowler friendly ( uncovered wickets - do your research)
what about Jim Hubble - Davo himself says he was the best left armer to ever play play for Aust
CREDIBILTY COMES WITH ACCURATE RESEARCH

Posted by: Brendan Layton at April 14, 2009 2:20 PM

Thank you for the replies and comments friends. As a post note, I've rated Wasim as the best left-hander, but not as the best bowler. That could bring in a whole lot more fun debate.

John, in future, try to make your criticisms a little more constructive rather than just plain rude. Perhaps you in turn could fill me in on ex-rugby union star Alan Walker, who, along with the Miller/Lindwall prescence, stalled Davo's career at NSW for some time?

My basis on Khan being the best over the other Indian quicks is purely on performance as well. He has outperformed all the other Indian quicks in the last two years. He may not be the best potentially (I believe Ishant Sharma could be a GREAT bowler), but the numbers add up.

Posted by: Hemant at April 15, 2009 2:30 AM

My theory why Lefties come with a bang is that left arm is an unusual angle for a batsman. However once the novelty finishes then the grind starts and it is when the gold is sifted from the sand. That is why Michell Johnson was the reason why Aussies won the ODIs in 2007 but by the time India visited Australia they had figured him out and thus the diminishing returns. Same is true for Pathan and Zaheer (in his previous incarnation). It is the few who can continue to evolve and keep the batsmen on tenterhook truly separate themselves and become great la Akram. Neverthless nothing excites me than a new left arm fast bowler in a team.

Posted by: james carbon at April 15, 2009 9:01 AM

Wasim Akram was the master of swing balling. He has all type of balls in his armory. Sometimes in single delivery he can product both, inward as well as outward movement. He was truly a master.

Posted by: aps at April 16, 2009 9:54 AM

Cricket needs more Wasim Akram to play the game because left arm pacer are always joy to watch. Moreover next generation always get inspiration from the legends they watch to play on the fields. Akram inspired many cricketers to adopt left arm bowling in the subcontinent including Zaheer, Irfan Pathan solail Tanveer and many more new players. Surprisely India has produced many good left hand pacers of late. Ashish nehra Zaheer khan Irfan Pathan etc are example of this trend .Irfan Pathan somehow lost his rhythm otherwise once he was called the successor of Akram .It has happens with many left hand pacers of past. They shines at starting but fade away very quickly. Bruce Reed , Nuvan Joysa of Sri lanka John Lever of England are example of this.Very few left arm bowlers are there who have taken more than 200 wickets in test.Can anyone tell me why left arm fast bowler get less as compared to their right hand counter parts

Posted by: Brendan Layton at April 17, 2009 5:31 AM

Usually because there just aren't a great deal of them around aps. I must say I have great difficulty rating Irfan Pathan because I don't think he has much variety when the ball stops swinging. That's where someone like Akram or Davo were dangerous because they had the variety to back their awkward angle and swing.

Posted by: aps at April 17, 2009 3:55 PM

Dear Brendan, Nice to read ur answer here. Anyway Irfan has got great success at starting of his career. You can check his record of first 3 years on international cricket. He has also taken a hat-trick in the first over of the match.I have compared him with Akram not only on his bowling standards but also for his batting late down the order. He is a decent batsman with good attacking capabilities. And dear Akram and Davo had not played T20 at their time so dont expect same kind of varity with Irfan because he is playing all forms of cricket especially shorter version where he is regular in team India.
One thing I want to know why u didn't mention any thing about R.P. Singh who is also very fine left hand fast bowler with batter record against top teams like Australia and England? In my opinion he is also one of the batter left hand fast bowler of present generation.

Posted by: kiren at April 23, 2009 3:02 PM

yusuf abdulla and parnell from SA look real promising;especially abdulla looks real quick;but have to say that Akram was the all time best and of the current lot zaheer and johnson are head over heels above the rest.

Posted by: Mohamed Jameel padikkalkandy at May 12, 2009 12:26 PM

Wasim Akram is undoubtedly the left arm fast bowler the world has ever seen. His ability to swing the ball both ways remains unparalleled. What makes him distinct is his ability to read the minds of batsman and to bowl according to his weakness.
I vividly remeber one over be bowled to Dion Nash of NewZealand, where he bowled two quick bouncers, and thrid ball, to the utter consternation of Nash, was a toe crushing yorker which beat him in the air and off the pitch.

Posted by: fahad at May 16, 2009 10:40 PM

wasim is one of the greatest fast bowler world have ever seen i think he is way ahead of ambrose and walsh.he is one bowler who can bowl all the balls masterfully. he can bowl suchyorkers which mcgrath and donald would have dreamed of. one of the best fast bowlers to bowl at the depth of innings.i think from the recent lot only zaheer have had shadows of akram.johnson and bracken are good bowlers but they are still not adept of swinging the bowl into the the right handers.

Posted by: Saqib at September 19, 2009 7:32 AM

Nice article, there is no equivalent of Wasim Akram.

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