Harsh Thakor
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In terms of speed Jeff Thomson was the equivalent of a super express train.He would hurl down a cricket ball creating the impact of thunder and lightning or an explosion..Before a batsmen could count Jack Robinson the ball would either shatter his stumps or strike him on his chest or gloves.No adjective could adequately describe Jeff Thomson's pace.His most common dismissal was getting a batsmen touching a rising ball onto his gloves to the keeper .Thomson's bounce was more disconcerting than any paceman ever where the ball visciously rose from a good length.Viv Richards,the greatest batsmen of his day thought Thomson at his quickest was the most lethal paceman he ever faced.Electronically he was the fastest bowler of his time ,faster than Lillee,Holding,Roberts or Imran.
In 1945-75 versus England and in 1975-76 versus West Indies Thomson was marginally more successful than his partner ,the great Dennis Lillee.(29 in 5tets v England and 33 in 6 test versus West Indies)Arguably the bouncy tracks suited Thomson's pure speed in contrast to Lillee's subtle variations.Thomson literally created a blitzkreig of a military tank and blasted out the opposition.The likes of Viv Richards,Clive Lloyd,Tony Greig were all tormented.However an injury caused by a collision at Brisbane in the 1st test of the 1976-77 series v Pakistan created a setback in Jeff Thomson's career and he could never again retrieve the same speed,consistently.In 1977 in England or in 1977-78 versus India he was only 3/4 of his original self.However on some occasions he was almost equally quick versus West Indies in the Carribean in 1977-78 and in Packer cricket in West Indies in 1979.In one supertest at Barbados he made the impact of a dynamite exploding in a spell,removing the likes of Viv Richards and Clive Lloyd.Had Thomson been fully fit and played in the supertests in Australia in 1977-78 nad 1978-79 Australia may well have won both the supertset titles and Viv Richardswould have been fully tested,jut like Greg Chappell or Sunil Gavaskar amongst contemporaries.
Where Thomson failed was when he lost a few yards of pace he did not posess the ,variations or craft of Andy Roberts,Dennis Lillee or Imran Khan who effectively utilized the weapon of swing and slower balls.Arguably all 3 were better bowlers overall at a marginaly reduced speed when they made their overall bowling armoury more potent with variations in movement.In the first part of his career he captured 5 wickets per test.Several critiques including me rate Michael Holding ahead rating him consistently quicker because of his his speed through the air.I believe at his fastest maybe only Shoaib Akhtar edged Thomson.
Dennis Lillee and Greg Chappell clas Jeff Thomson amongst the all-time great paceman .Greg rates him behind only Lillee,Andy Roberts and Malcolm Marshall while Lillee places Thommo only behind Andy Roberts and John Snow.Thomson fails to find a place amongst John Woodcocks and Cristopher Martin Jenkins all-time 100 but is placed at 91st pace in Geoff Armstrong's best 100 cricketers of all time.Armstrong rates Thomson ahead of Alan Donald,Bob Willis,Wes Hall or Courtney Walsh.In my book Donald and Hall were marginally ahead of Thomson.
I may rate Jeff the fastest of all paceman but still not in the class of all-time great pace bowlers like Lillee.Marshall,Akram,Mcgrath,Hadlee,Imran Roberts or Holding.He could could combine swing or variations into his armoury and was not tested on sub-continent surfaces.However I may well be wrong as some great batsmen and pace bowlers rate him the most lethal paceman of his time or of all time.The closest to Thomson in terms of speed were Shoaib Akhtar,Bret Lee,Waqar Younus ,Alan Donald and Sylvester Clarke.
Few sights in International sport could be as exhilarating as watching Jeff Thomson hurl down a delivery in full cry.It was seeing a bomber shattering an airbase.If I asked a batsmen who would he rather face between Lillee and Thomson he would probably not have an answer.At his best Thomson may have been a more daunting propistion for Sachin Tendulkar than Glen Mcgrath.
In 1945-75 versus England and in 1975-76 versus West Indies Thomson was marginally more successful than his partner ,the great Dennis Lillee.(29 in 5tets v England and 33 in 6 test versus West Indies)Arguably the bouncy tracks suited Thomson's pure speed in contrast to Lillee's subtle variations.Thomson literally created a blitzkreig of a military tank and blasted out the opposition.The likes of Viv Richards,Clive Lloyd,Tony Greig were all tormented.However an injury caused by a collision at Brisbane in the 1st test of the 1976-77 series v Pakistan created a setback in Jeff Thomson's career and he could never again retrieve the same speed,consistently.In 1977 in England or in 1977-78 versus India he was only 3/4 of his original self.However on some occasions he was almost equally quick versus West Indies in the Carribean in 1977-78 and in Packer cricket in West Indies in 1979.In one supertest at Barbados he made the impact of a dynamite exploding in a spell,removing the likes of Viv Richards and Clive Lloyd.Had Thomson been fully fit and played in the supertests in Australia in 1977-78 nad 1978-79 Australia may well have won both the supertset titles and Viv Richardswould have been fully tested,jut like Greg Chappell or Sunil Gavaskar amongst contemporaries.
Where Thomson failed was when he lost a few yards of pace he did not posess the ,variations or craft of Andy Roberts,Dennis Lillee or Imran Khan who effectively utilized the weapon of swing and slower balls.Arguably all 3 were better bowlers overall at a marginaly reduced speed when they made their overall bowling armoury more potent with variations in movement.In the first part of his career he captured 5 wickets per test.Several critiques including me rate Michael Holding ahead rating him consistently quicker because of his his speed through the air.I believe at his fastest maybe only Shoaib Akhtar edged Thomson.
Dennis Lillee and Greg Chappell clas Jeff Thomson amongst the all-time great paceman .Greg rates him behind only Lillee,Andy Roberts and Malcolm Marshall while Lillee places Thommo only behind Andy Roberts and John Snow.Thomson fails to find a place amongst John Woodcocks and Cristopher Martin Jenkins all-time 100 but is placed at 91st pace in Geoff Armstrong's best 100 cricketers of all time.Armstrong rates Thomson ahead of Alan Donald,Bob Willis,Wes Hall or Courtney Walsh.In my book Donald and Hall were marginally ahead of Thomson.
I may rate Jeff the fastest of all paceman but still not in the class of all-time great pace bowlers like Lillee.Marshall,Akram,Mcgrath,Hadlee,Imran Roberts or Holding.He could could combine swing or variations into his armoury and was not tested on sub-continent surfaces.However I may well be wrong as some great batsmen and pace bowlers rate him the most lethal paceman of his time or of all time.The closest to Thomson in terms of speed were Shoaib Akhtar,Bret Lee,Waqar Younus ,Alan Donald and Sylvester Clarke.
Few sights in International sport could be as exhilarating as watching Jeff Thomson hurl down a delivery in full cry.It was seeing a bomber shattering an airbase.If I asked a batsmen who would he rather face between Lillee and Thomson he would probably not have an answer.At his best Thomson may have been a more daunting propistion for Sachin Tendulkar than Glen Mcgrath.
lcolm
200 Test wickets at 28<br>�� Eight five-wicket hauls for <a href="https://twitter.com/CricketAus?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CricketAus</a> <br>��️ One of the fastest bowlers of all time<br><br>Happy birthday to Aussie great, Jeff Thomson �� <a href="https://t.co/Dmvwf032hy">pic.twitter.com/Dmvwf032hy</a></p>— ICC (@ICC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ICC/status/1427091764922433536?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 16, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
