Fast bowling is at the core of Australian cricket culture. We have produced some of the best to grace the game of cricket, from the lightning quick to the metronomically accurate; the canny and the courageous.
Watching Mitchell Johnson tear England apart and take South Africa to pieces has been exhilarating.
These performances have written Johnson into the pantheon of great Australian quicks, fulfilling finally the talent he has always had. This fast bowling line-up is close to as good as any in our proud history.
The Invincibles’ fast bowling attack would be amongst our greatest. Ray Lindwall and Keith Miller invariably find themselves in the playing 11 of all-time great Australian teams, but left armer Bill Johnston took wickets with unerring reliability.
Ernie Toshack’s herculean stamina and miserly economy rate completed the attack. The 1948 tour is often fondly remembered for the feats of batting – Bradman and Barnes, Morris and Harvey – but the attack would have given them a run for their money.
Lillee and Thomson’s names drift on the wind over cricket ovals around the country. Thommo was the fastest bowler ever to have lived, DK arguably the greatest.
That they came together at the same time was a blessing for Australian cricket and a curse for everyone else. Unorthodox Max Walker backed them up well.
Injuries eventually put paid to Thomson, and he was never the same bowler as he was during the first stint of his career, but Lillee developed the mastery of technique to continue his career beyond his back’s endurance. He lost some pace but developed swing, seam and a bowling intelligence that finished the job in Test after Test.
Glenn McGrath holds the fast bowling wicket-taking record and remains my favourite bowler to watch. He would relentlessly pitch the ball just short of a good length, get it to do a little bit each way until his opponent would make their mistake.
He seemed to unerringly settle on a batsman’s weakness and exploit it. The greatest testament to him was how he managed to target and belittle the greatest batsmen, series after series.
Jason Gillespie was a perfect partner with the new ball. Using a fuller length and swing rather than seam movement, he would get batsmen driving only to get caught in the monstrous slip cordon that could only have been employed by such a dominant team.
Brett Lee was a pretty handy third fast man. Capable of bowling as quickly as any I’ve seen, his smooth action often got a lot of swing.
Lee’s greatest years were probably lost to injury and he lacks the figures of McGrath and Gillespie, but he still has 310 wickets at 30 and the knowledge that he played his role as the fast bowling enforcer in an era of great strength for Australian cricket.
Although we have produced any number of great fast bowlers, Alan Davidson, Graham McKenzie and Craig McDermott (among others) are notably absent as the true strength of a fast bowling attack is in its unity.
That is why Johnson, Harris, Siddle and Watson are now causing such damage to opposition. These bowlers offer contrasting styles, play different roles and build pressure together.
They may not be in the same class as the attacks above them as yet, but they might yet be.
Yet the next crop of Australian fast bowlers may even exceed them. If injuries and luck pan out we may have a fast bowling attack of James Pattinson, Mitchell Starc and Patrick Cummins, with James Faulkner to back them up.
Any one on that list may be equaled by a Chadd Sayers or a Jackson Bird; an Alister McDermott or a Josh Hazlewood. The task of the selectors is to manage the transition from the great attack we have now, into the great attack these young men have the capacity to be.
If only half these bowlers play to their potential, Australia will win more Tests than they lose over the next 10 years.
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