Which bowler's action would you try to copy when you were younger?

[Colorblind Genius]

DK Lillee - later Waquar Younis & finally Ian Bishop

Though I liked most was Mike Holding but somehow never tried to copy him. In later stages, I really liked Bishop, but by then I stopped thinking on playing serious cricket and focused on studies. DK Lillee was my first crash - actually pulled a muscle in shoulders and suffered for three months trying to copy arm movement during run-up.


Among spinners - one and only A Qadir. Bowled off-spin as well, but that's just my own action, none in mind - people said it was like Tauseef.

Oh man! What memories.

In those days, I tried, Holding a lot. Thompson, Lawson, Hadlee, Lillee, Bob Willis, Andy Roberts, Garner, I think I tried to copy every fast bowler in my childhood era, except for Kapil due to India Pak cricket vendetta. And his action was not manly enough anyway as he used to often fix his collar to unconsciously express his guilt and frustration.

And for fun, I used to copy Sarfaraz Nawaz and Colon Croft. I was once told by a coach who was running a national U-16 coaching camp that your follow through is just like Michael Holding.

And he said it in a very sentimental (and funny) way to encourage me. I still remember the exact words. He walked up to me after I finished an over, and said.

“LA ILAHA ILLALAH - MUHAMMAD UR RASOOLULLAH (saw),,, (my name) tumhara action aur follow through bilkul West Indies k bowlers ki tarah hai”.

And who hasn’t copied Warne and Qadir
Bruce Yardley, Roger Harper, Jeremy Coney, I even tried left arm Iqbal Qasim.

Anyway,
As age kicked in and gradual decline started (but cricket insect was still there), I wanted to swing like him, so I copied Derek Pringle. I still believe he has the simplest action to swing the ball. Amazing talent!

Now I transitioned into Botham’s action as he bowled in 92 WC. Simple and easy.

Cricket bowling action is such an interesting phenomenon. In theory, it’s just throwing the ball towards the batsman with one bounce. But if all 7 billion people on earth were to bowl, I think everyone will probably have their own unique bowling action.

The closest two bowling actions in similarity that I have seen are Greg McDermott and Paul Rieffel.