Waqar Younis, the fastest bowler of all time?

[PakWarrior]

For those of us old enough to have followed Waqar from his young Surrey days, I think we can all agree that he was one of the fastest bowlers of all time.

Waqar wasn't 95mph+ during the Australia one day series in 1989 when he made his debut under Imran's captaincy. He was skinny and raw and was perhaps 86mph to 92mph that year.

But then the remarkable transformation began. Waqar's young body began to develop and his pace went up a level. From 1990 to 1993, I believe Waqar may have crossed the 100mph barrier.

We all know about his back injuries and his pace began to drop at the end of 1994. He had two choices. To change his action and lose 5mph in speed or to retire from the sport. He chose the former.

Waqar was still clocked at 90 to 92 mph from 1996 to 1997. Then after more surgeries he was bowling from 86 to 88mph from late 1997 until late 1998.

From 1999 to 2003 he was a 83mph to 85mph bowler. He was still successful as wisdom trumped pace.

Also we should take speed gun measurements from the 2003 world cup with a pinch of salt due to various geographical factors (sea level etc), 2 to 3mph were being added on top of true bowler speeds.

I think most of us will agree that he was one of the fastest bowlers of all time, if not the fastest.

 

[IMMY69]

Waqar was lightening quick between 1989 and 1991.

 

[BlackShadow]

Never watched him bowl quick, but I have heard Sidhu mention how Waqar was a 90mph bowler in his peak. Won't be surprised if Waqar hit 95mph at times, but 100mph is exaggerating it, in a big way.

 

[Bhaijaan]

Just by seeing Waqar bowl in the early 90s it is clear that he was operating in access of 165kph.

 

[PakLFC]

Being so fast means the batsman just needs to get a touch and away it flies. Still think the likes of Shoaib, Thompson, Lillee, Holding and Marshall were probably a bit faster then Waqar at their peak.

 

[Majid Khan]

I would agree - Waqar between 89 and 94 prior to his injury, was through the air the fastest ever arguably. Others like Holding or Thomson were more aggressive and intimidating with their pace , that I would agree with, but sheer pace through the air for me Waqar and Shoaib at their peaks were second to none. It's very hard to say if Waqar was marginally quicker than Shoaib but they were pretty close at their fastest and most importantly they were consistently express at 95mph+ range.

And when you think about it both Waqar and Shoaib had the longest and fastest sprinter like run ups in history along with explosive slingy actions, so that might be the secret behind their speed.

 

[PakWarrior]

I would agree - Waqar between 89 and 94 prior to his injury, was through the air the fastest ever arguably. Others like Holding or Thomson were more aggressive and intimidating with their pace , that I would agree with, but sheer pace through the air for me Waqar and Shoaib at their peaks were second to none. It's very hard to say if Waqar was marginally quicker than Shoaib but they were pretty close at their fastest and most importantly they were consistently express at 95mph+ range.

And when you think about it both Waqar and Shoaib had the longest and fastest sprinter like run ups in history along with explosive slingy actions, so that might be the secret behind their speed.

Absolute pleasure to read your post Majid.

I completely agree with you.

Being faster in the air is a much bigger gauge as to a bowler's true speed, in my opinion.

 

[BD-fan]

Fastest or not, them inswinging yorkers were unplayable. Either you save your toe (and play next game) or try to save your wicket and get hurt (hoping umpire wouldn't raise his finger).

You lose no matter what you decide to do as a batsman. Malinga came close. Haven't seen anyone bowling yorkers at that pace since.

 

[topspin]

Not sure if it's true but Jeff Thompson apparently used to bowl upto 170.