top 5 fastest bowler in cricket history

1. Shoaib Akhtar

Fastest Bowl: 161.3

Shoaib Akhtar is former Pakistani international cricket player. He is widely known as for his fast bowling. He is fastest bowler in the world, his team mates called him Rawalpindi express. He is one of the most successful bowler of Pakistan. Pakistan always gave best bowler to world cricket like Umar Gul, Vasim Akram, Waquar Younis etc. He had amazing ability to bowl consistently more than 150 km/h, his fastest bowl is 161.3 km that is the record in history of cricket. In his career albeit short one and reached a world record speed during World Cup 2003 against England when his produced a 161.3 km/h speed of a bowl to Englah d knick Knight. He become the first bowler to reach speed of 100 miles an hour in official ICC match.

2. Brett Lee

Fastest Bowl: 161.1

Brett Lee is former Australian international cricket player. He is rated as one of all time best bowler in history of cricket. He consistently bowl more than 150 km/h along with he is best swing bowler of his time. He played total 76 test matches in which he took 310 wicket and in 221 ODI matches he took 380 wicket. He is athletic fielder and useful lower order batsman, his batting average is more than 20 in test cricket. He became the second bowler in history to record a 100 miles per speed during 2005 ODI game against New Zealand when he recorded 161.1 km/h (100.1 miles/ph). Reaching one off top speed is one thing, but what made Shoaib Akhtar and Brett Lee the fastest bowlers was the fact they could consistently produce speeds of around 150 km/h during their careers unlike the other names in list.

3. Shaun Tait

Fastest Bowl: 161.1

Shaun Tait is Australian cricket player who currently play in T20 format only. He is right arm fast bowler. Tait rated as one of fast bowler in world cricket. He play total 35 ODI matches in which he took 73 wickets. Career of Tait is very short at international level, he play in the Big Bash League for the Hobart Hurricanes. He was not your average tall bowler with orthodox round arm bowling action but he could really hit the deck hard with his pacy and skiddy bowling line and length. He recorded 161.1 km/h bowling speed against Pakistan in the ODI game in Australia.

4. Jeffrey Thompson

Fastest Bowl: 160

Jeffrey Thompson is former Australian international cricket player, he is known as Thommo he is rated by many in sport to be the fastest bowler of all time. Now this can be controversial because its hard to believe there was precise enough instrument to record bowling speeds in 1976 but he was definitely the fastest bowlers of his era. Apparently he recorded the fastest bowling speed in world cricket of 160.6 km/h in the nets back in 1976 when a fast bowling study was conducted. Most cricketers, experts and viewers who have watched cricket from at least the 1970s rate Thomson as the fastest they have ever seen. He played total 51 test matches in which he took 200 wickets. Many batsman of Thompson era believe that he was faster that Brett Lee and Shoaib Akhtar. Jeffrey Thompson himself believed that he was the fastest ever and some of his deliveries were way faster than 160km/h.

5. Andy Roberts

Fastest Bowl: 159.5

Andy Roberts is former West Indies international cricket player. He was fast bowler, twice taking seven wickets in an innings of a test match. One of the trademarks was use the two different bouncers one was slower and was often dealt with quite easily by the batsman. Roberts would then deliver the second bouncer, pitching in a similar spot to the first, but delivered at far greater pace. Tall West Indies bowler in the golden generation of West Indies cricket Andy Roberts was part of a formidable West Indies bowling units. They were all fast but Andy Roberts stood out with his speed and many batsman of his generation regard him one of the fastest they have ever faced. His fastest bowl is recorded at the speed of 159.5 km/h which 99.11 miles/h.