Tribute to Curtly Ambrose on 50th birthday today

[Harsh Thakor]

Today on September 21st,2013 former pace bowler Curtly Ambrose turns 50.His exploits n the cricket field will never be forgotten till the game exists. In full flow he created the impact of a dynamite exploding .He may not have possessed as polished a run –up or action of Michael Holding but still resembled a Greek God breathing fire. No pace bowler was a fiery as Ambrose in his era, not even Glen Mcgrath or Wasim Akram. Curtly made his debut in 1988 versus Pakistan replacing former greats like Joel Garner or Michael Holding. Later on in the 1988 test series in England he ably accompanied the likes of Malcolm Marshall with Courtney Walsh and Patrick Paterson. However all played 2nd fiddle to Marshal who was at his absolute best. In 1988-89 in Australia he was the leading wicket taker, overshadowing the great Malcolm Marshall.Curtly’s disconcerting bounce ,guile and immaculate length was often unplayable for the Aussie batsman.Bar Joel Garner, the Australian crowd had never witnessed a West Indian paceman as relentless as Ambrose. From the years of 1988-94 West Indies retained their place at the top of the test cricketing world but at times were almost beaten. Curtly Ambrose’s herculean efforts thwarted opponent’s hopes of conquering the world champions on 3 occasions. In 1990 in the 3rd test at Barbados v England (who were one –up in the series), he captured 8-45,including 5 wickets in one spell to rip through the English batting on the final evening. It was menacing exhibition of pace combined with control.The English batsmen were simply forced back on the stumps.. In 1992 at Barbados chasing a target of 201 for victory South Africa were comfortably coasting home at 129-2 .Then Ambrose exploiting the conditions of a bad wicket brilliantly ripped through the South African batting line up and 8 wickets fell for a mere 27 runs. Ambrose had made the impact of an unexpected thunderstorm. In 1992-93 in the final test match of the 5 test series at Perth Ambrose unleashed arguably one of test cricket’s 2-3 best pace bowling spells ever when capturing 7 wickets for one run. The Australian batting literally fell apart like nine pins. Ambrose destroyed his opponents like a bomber destroying an airbase. His bowling displayed the ruthless efficiency of a programmed machine and contained every aspect of pace bowling be it pace, control, accuracy or movement. Arguably it was the best spell of pace bowling ever witnessed in Australia. Earlier Ambrose’s bowling played a major role in his team’s comeback in the 3rd test at Adelaide where they won by the margin of a mere 2 runs.In the 1992-93 Frank Worrel trophy Ambrose captured 33 wickets-a record haul by any West Indian paceman in a series in Australia.Arguably it overshadowed the efforts of Andy Roberts in 1975-76.Michael Holding in 1981-82 and Malcolm Marshall in 1984-85. In 1994 chasing a mere target of 194 runs at Trindad Ambrose bowled another awesome spell of 6022 to bowl out England for 46 runs.It looked like a bulldozer coming on a cricket pitch. In 1995 the West Indies were toppled from their crown as world test champions by Australia as well as in 1996-97 down under. Again Ambrose played a major role in his team’s triumphs at Trinidad in 1995 and at Melbourne in 1996-7 .This displayed his great consistency and ability to perform in all situations. In 1999 although West Indies did not regain the Frank Worrel trophy they came within touching distance of attaining their objective when winnin g successive tests at Kingston and Barbados.After being slaughtered at Trinidad in the 1st test the Calypsos’ came back to win the 2nd test at Kingston with Curtly making a significant contribution. Ambrose also bowled a remarkable spell to bring back West Indies at Barbados who faced a 1st innings deficit of around 170 runs and ripped out Australia for 134,making their final run target 308 in the 2nd innings. Sadly Ambrose with Courtney Walsh had a weak batting line up to back up their efforts. Infact I can never think of any great bowling pair representing such a weak team. Inspite of sustaining his accuracy Ambrose could not stop the decline of West Indian cricket to such a low ebb.His team faced humiliating defeats in South Africa in 1997-98,Pakistan in 1997 etc.A major batting collapse caused the exit of West Indies in the 1996 world cup semi-final at Chandigarh where Ambrose bowled one of the most tantalizing bowling spells ever exhibited in one day cricket. The Calypsos looked set to reach the final before Shane Warne made a divine intervention. Overall Curtly Ambrose is a strong contender for the best West Indian paceman of all and arguably was the best pace bowler of his era. Glen Mcgrath or Wasim Akram did not bowl half as many great spells that turned games. Few pace bowlers ever could trigger of such sensational batting collapses like a cowboy mowing down his opponents with a revolver. True Wasim had more pure genius and greater variety but still at his best did not equal Ambrose’s explosive impact. Glen Mcgrath was a metronome with marginally more control but again would not equal Ambrose in full flow .Even the likes of Dennis Lillee or Malcolm Marshall were not as relentless as Ambrose, who simply never let a batsman get on top of him.Imagine Curtly playing for a great Australian side. He may have become the best paceman of all .I can’t think of any pace bowler in cricket history who bowled so many great match-winning spells or turned so may lost causes into winning ones. On bad or broken wickets Ambrose would be my 1st choice to join Dennis Lillee or Malcolm Marshall. On Australian wickets arguably Ambrose was the best overseas paceman of all whose accuracy and steep bounce was an ideal foil for the bouncy tracks. Matthew Hayden and Steve Waugh rate Ambrose the best paceman they faced. However overall great batsmen still found Wasim Akram more daunting because of his originality and variety.Jacques Kallis is the best example.Wasim would still be a better contender for an all-time world xi with his left-arm variety as well as Glen McGrath with his marginally better control and consistency.However what I will never doubt that as a match-winner Curtly Ambrose was the best pace bowler of his era who could rank as a match-winner with the likes of Viv Richards or Imran Khan.Ambrose’s bowling combined the pace of Michael Holding and the craft of Andy Roberts with the accuracy of Joel Garner.Ambrose captured more top order wickets than any great paceman of his era. What may count against Curtly is his performances on the dead sub-continent wickets in Pakistan. Like Andy Roberts,Marshall and Walsh he hardly proved his prowess on docile sub –continent tracks. At times his bowling was also predictable and did not posess the trajectory of Roberts or Marshall. Arguably on batting track or a pure cricket Holding or Roberts may have edged Ambrose. Ambrose’s strike rate was also not as remarkable as Marshall, Mcgrath or even Waqar younus. In matches won Wasim Akram and Alan Donlad had a better strike rate. However remember he bore the brunt of a weak team. Imagine still averaging 20.99.He was the equivalent to pace bowling what George Headley was to batting in that respect. In effect morally he was the most relentless of all West Indian paceman.I would have loved to see the likes of Gavaskar,Greg Chappell etc face Ambrose.Dennis Lille rated Ambrose as the best paceman of the modern era-ahead of Wasim and Mcgrath and on par with Marshall.Lillee felt Ambrose had the trajectory for all types of conditions. Above all he was very affable human being who constantly radiated the joy he radiated when strumming the guitar.Today on his 50th birthday let us solemnly bow down to this great champion. Bowling statistics (S Rajesh from cricinfo) Best bowling averages in Test wins (Qual: 200 wickets) Bowler Tests Wickets Average Strike rate 5WI/ 10WM Muttiah Muralitharan 53 430 16.03 42.6 40/ 18 Malcolm Marshall 43 254 16.78 38.1 17/ 4 Curtly Ambrose 44 229 16.86 44.4 13/ 3 Waqar Younis 39 222 18.20 35.0 14/ 4 Dennis Lillee 31 203 18.27 39.0 17/ 6 Shaun Pollock 49 223 18.30 47.5 9/ 1 Wasim Akram 41 211 18.48 42.3 13/ 2 Anil Kumble 43 288 18.75 44.4 20/ 5 Below I am posting a research work by Anantha narayana from cricinfo cordon on his 15 best bowlers and his criteria. Observe Ambrose’s remarkable statistics in capturing important wickets, in overseas tests and in overall bowling accuracy.He is virtually on the top in these departments. If you consider he played for such a weak team his average in won matches is remarkable. Playing for a champion team he may have even outclassed Glen McGrath as a match-winner or even edged Dennis Lillee.One table that is missing is who bowled the most spells in turning games that virtually looked lost.Overall Ambrose is rated amongst the top 5 bowlers only a shade behind Malcolm Marshall and ahead of Imran Khan or Dennis Lillee. As I had mentioned in my recent article on Muralitharan, this is the right time to have an in-depth look at the great bowlers of our times and before. We have just seen the retirement of one of the all-time great bowlers and the next active bowler is, in Formula-1 parlance, three laps behind. I have selected the following fifteen bowlers for analysis. Readers might have their own favourites. However I believe that this collection contains the best ever bowlers, barring personal preferences. I have also tried hard to have as wide a selection as possible, covering all the major test playing countries. I did a Test bowlers analysis last year. However this one has removed all the warts from that and is also at the career-end stage for all the fifteen bowlers. I have a major advantage in doing this analysis. Since the analysis is limited to 15 bowlers, I do not need to worry about the wide disparity which existed between around 60 bowlers who were part of my previous analysis. Australia: Shane Warne Glenn McGrath Dennis Lillee West Indies: Malcolm Marshall Curtley Ambrose Joel Garner Pakistan: Imran Khan Wasim Akram Waqar Younis India Anil Kumble Kapil Dev Sri Lanka: Muralitharan New Zealand: Richard Hadlee South Africa: Allan Donald England: Fred Trueman. A few notes on the selections. I did not select any pre-WW2 bowlers since their figures would have distorted the numbers considerably, especially Sydney Barnes. The three Australian bowlers select themselves. For West Indies I selected their three best bowlers over the past 30 years. Holding for Garner could be an option. However Garner has a bowling average of 20.98 against Holding's 23.69. First I had selected only Imran Khan and Wasim Akram for Pakistan. Then I realized that Waqar Younis led in one key measure (strike rate) and there was no way could miss him. I did not want to drop Wasim Akram since he is the only left-hander in this group. Kumble selects himself while Kapil Dev, although he has average overall figures deserves a place since he was the leading wicket-taker for quite some time and changed the face of Indian fast bowling. Shaun Pollock is the only one who could challenge Donald's place. I selected Fred Trueman to represent the period between 1947 and 1969. He is also the best modern English bowler. I also followed the basic principle that any bowler who was the best in a key category (wkts/strike rate/rpo) cannot be left out. One could find justifications for including Walsh, Holding, Shaun Pollock, Willis et al. However this is my selection and not a bad one at that. Let me also add that this is not necessarily the top bowlers list. I am sure Holding, Roberts, Pollock et al would be placed higher than a few in this list. However I wanted to have as wide a representation as possible and restricted one country to 3 bowlers. Now for the measures on which the rating work is done. First let me clarify two fundamental differences to the way I have done such exercises before. The first is that I have selected ten measures and given equal weight to all. That way I reduce the chances of subjective valuations. The next is that for each measure, the best gets the maximum points, viz., 10.0 and the others get proportionate points. This reduces the possibility of differential weights and ensures a fair allocation of points. The following measures are used. 1. Wickets captured. 2. Bowling strike rate (Bpw). 3. Bowling accuracy (Rpo). (These two are components of the Bowling average, but have been considered independently). 4. Quality of wickets captured (Average of dismissed batsmen's batting averages) 5. Away bowling average. 6. % of top order wickets captured. 7. Team load borne by bowler (balls bowled and wickets captured). 8. Ratio of bowling average to peer bowling average - all teams. 9. Ratio of bowling average to peer bowling average - other bowlers of own team. 10.Win index (Combination of two ratios)- (% of win wickets to career wickets and % of win wickets to team win wickets). Just to summarize, Muralitharan leads in 2 measures (Wickets and Team load factor). The other 8 measures are led by Ambrose (RpO), Garner (Away bowling average), Imran Khan (Dismissed batsman quality), Waqar Younis (Bowling strike rate), Marshall (Peer comparison to all bowlers), Hadlee (Peer comparison to own team bowlers), McGrath (Top order wickets ratio) and Warne (Win index). A very fair distribution of the top positions with nine bowlers leading in one or more measures. There is no domination by one bowler. There is one point worth mentioning here. There have been a number of comments about the wickets captured by Muralitharan against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. I have thought long and hard and decided not to do anything about it. What is the definition of a weak team. India against Trueman in 1952 were much worse than Bangladesh against Muralitharan. England in 1984 were the rabbits against Marshall. How do we value the English wickets against Australia in 2006. It pains me to say this, what about Pakistan during the past few months. And finally where do we place Sri Lanka itself during its first 10 years. Let us not forget that Warne did not bowl against the strong Australian batsmen, nor Kumble against the great Indian line-up and so on. However the fact that the bowlers in the strong batting lineups did not bowl against their own lineups does not make them any less bowlers. Let Muralitharan not get penalized for playing in a weaker team. If Muralitharan captured wickets against a team including the Flower brothers, Campbell and Goodwin, how can anyone downgrade these wickets. Where do we draw the line. A test wicket is a test wicket. There are enough measures built in to take care of wickets of batsmen of lower quality. If we start down-valuing performances against Bangladesh, what about Tendulkar's recent 105 out of 243, one of his best ever. For that matter, Gilchrist's 144 or Inzamam's 138 were all truly great match-winning innings. So let us put to rest this red herring, once and for all. A final point to ponder for those doubting Thomases. Zimbabwe have won 8 of their 83 tests played. India won 8 out of their first 83 tests and New Zealand won 4 of their first 83 tests. Nice to remember that the first away test India won was past the 100th test they played (during 1968). Both Zimbabwe and Bangladesh have won away tests well before this number. I understand that this analysis favours the fast bowlers slightly. This is primarily because fast bowlers' strike rates are lower and they have a better chance of capturing top order wickets. However we have to consider the contribution to team causes and taking top order wickets and having lower strike rates are very essential to the team cause. As far as Strike rates and Rpo are concerned there is no need to do any adjustment since these are all great bowlers. Only two of these bowlers, Kumble and Kapil Dev have strike rates exceeding 60. Muralitharan and Warne have strike rates comparable to the pace bowlers. Surprisingly the bowler with the best Rpo figure is Ambrose. This clearly shows that there is no need to do any special adjustment. Now for the tables. 1. Career wickets captured Bowler Value Points Muralitharan M 800 10.00 Warne S.K 708 8.85 Kumble A 619 7.74 McGrath G.D 563 7.04 Kapil Dev N 434 5.43 Hadlee R.J 431 5.39 Wasim Akram 414 5.18 Ambrose C.E.L 405 5.06 Marshall M.D 376 4.70 Waqar Younis 373 4.66 Imran Khan 362 4.53 Lillee D.K 355 4.44 Donald A.A 330 4.12 Trueman F.S 307 3.84 Garner J 259 3.24 This table is self-explanatory. 2. Bowling strike rate (Bpw) Bowler Value Points Waqar Younis 43.49 10.00 Marshall M.D 46.77 9.30 Donald A.A 47.03 9.24 Trueman F.S 49.44 8.72 Hadlee R.J 50.85 8.42 Garner J 50.87 8.41 McGrath G.D 51.95 8.18 Lillee D.K 52.02 8.17 Imran Khan 53.75 7.79 Ambrose C.E.L 54.58 7.62 Wasim Akram 54.66 7.60 Muralitharan M 55.05 7.52 Warne S.K 57.49 6.99 Kapil Dev N 63.92 5.61 Kumble A 66.00 5.16 Waqar Younis is the bowler with the lowest strike rate. It is not surprising to see that the three spinners and Kapil Dev prop up the table, although Muralitharan and Warne are not too far from Wasim Akram. 3. Bowling accuracy (Rpo) Bowler Value Points Ambrose C.E.L 2.31 10.00 Garner J 2.47 9.12 Muralitharan M 2.48 9.10 McGrath G.D 2.50 8.98 Imran Khan 2.55 8.74 Wasim Akram 2.59 8.49 Trueman F.S 2.62 8.35 Hadlee R.J 2.63 8.29 Warne S.K 2.65 8.18 Marshall M.D 2.69 7.99 Kumble A 2.70 7.95 Lillee D.K 2.76 7.61 Kapil Dev N 2.78 7.49 Donald A.A 2.84 7.19 Waqar Younis 3.25 5.02 One would have expected a spinner like Murali to head this table. It is a surprise that the often-underrated Ambrose is on top with a Rpo value of 2.31. Waqar Younis has topped the previous table and is propping up this table. 4. Average quality of wickets captured Bowler Value Points Imran Khan 25.76 10.00 Lillee D.K 24.58 9.54 Kapil Dev N 23.83 9.25 Hadlee R.J 23.64 9.18 Marshall M.D 22.97 8.92 Garner J 22.18 8.61 Kumble A 20.51 7.96 Waqar Younis 20.34 7.89 Muralitharan M 20.27 7.87 Donald A.A 20.06 7.79 Ambrose C.E.L 20.01 7.77 Wasim Akram 19.56 7.59 McGrath G.D 19.22 7.46 Warne S.K 18.48 7.17 Trueman F.S 17.80 6.91 Imran Khan's wickets were of high quality as proved by his high placing here. Warne's and McGrath's low placing is the result of many late order wickets and the fact that they played for a very strong batting lineup. Muralitharan is also pulled down by the number of wickets against the weaker teams. However his figures are still higher than those of Warne. 5. Away wicket bowling average Bowler Value Points Garner J 20.33 10.00 Ambrose C.E.L 20.39 9.98 McGrath G.D 21.23 9.70 Marshall M.D 22.25 9.35 Hadlee R.J 22.37 9.31 Donald A.A 23.51 8.93 Wasim Akram 23.97 8.77 Lillee D.K 24.18 8.70 Warne S.K 25.27 8.33 Trueman F.S 26.16 8.04 Imran Khan 26.29 7.99 Waqar Younis 26.29 7.99 Muralitharan M 27.02 7.74 Kapil Dev N 32.69 5.83 Kumble A 37.36 4.26 Garner has captured his away wickets at an incredible average of 20.33, closely followed by Ambrose with an away average of 20.39. In fact Garner, Ambrose, McGrath and Warne have an away bowling average which is better than their home bowling average. Kumble's away bowling average was abysmal. Look at the huge daylight which exists between Murali and Kapil/Kumble. 6. % of top order wickets captured Bowler Value Points McGrath G.D 0.501 10.00 Donald A.A 0.497 9.92 Kapil Dev N 0.494 9.84 Ambrose C.E.L 0.475 9.46 Lillee D.K 0.468 9.33 Imran Khan 0.462 9.21 Trueman F.S 0.453 9.04 Marshall M.D 0.445 8.87 Hadlee R.J 0.439 8.75 Waqar Younis 0.437 8.72 Garner J 0.406 8.09 Wasim Akram 0.394 7.86 Kumble A 0.383 7.64 Muralitharan M 0.350 6.99 Warne S.K 0.318 6.35 Just over half of the wickets captured by McGrath are top order wickets. The three spinners prop up the table, with figures around a third of the total wickets. This is to be expected. 7. % of team load borne Bowler Value Points Muralitharan M 0.361 10.00 Hadlee R.J 0.298 8.26 Kumble A 0.296 8.21 Warne S.K 0.281 7.77 Lillee D.K 0.275 7.62 Imran Khan 0.267 7.40 Donald A.A 0.253 7.01 Wasim Akram 0.250 6.92 Marshall M.D 0.249 6.89 McGrath G.D 0.247 6.85 Ambrose C.E.L 0.244 6.76 Garner J 0.243 6.74 Trueman F.S 0.242 6.71 Waqar Younis 0.239 6.63 Kapil Dev N 0.222 6.14 This is a composite value taking into account the work load in terms of balls bowled and the resultant wicket captures. Muralitharan is way out on top having shared captured 39% of his team wickets and bowling 33% of his team balls. 6 of the pace bowlers fall below 25%. 8. Peer comparison of average to all peer bowlers Bowler Value Points Marshall M.D 1.550 10.00 McGrath G.D 1.527 9.84 Ambrose C.E.L 1.514 9.76 Garner J 1.509 9.73 Muralitharan M 1.478 9.53 Hadlee R.J 1.447 9.33 Trueman F.S 1.435 9.25 Donald A.A 1.433 9.24 Imran Khan 1.410 9.09 Waqar Younis 1.363 8.79 Wasim Akram 1.361 8.77 Lillee D.K 1.332 8.59 Warne S.K 1.295 8.35 Kumble A 1.107 7.14 Kapil Dev N 1.085 7.00 This is a comparison of the bowler's bowling average with that of his peers, exactly measured from his first test to last test. Marshall, McGrath and Ambrose stand at over 150%. Kumble and Kapil Dev just about stay either side of 110%. 9. Peer comparison of average to own team peer bowlers Bowler Value Points Hadlee R.J 1.534 10.00 Muralitharan M 1.418 9.25 Imran Khan 1.377 8.98 Ambrose C.E.L 1.233 8.04 Donald A.A 1.197 7.80 Lillee D.K 1.188 7.74 Kapil Dev N 1.181 7.70 Marshall M.D 1.170 7.63 Trueman F.S 1.169 7.62 Garner J 1.156 7.54 Wasim Akram 1.151 7.51 McGrath G.D 1.149 7.49 Kumble A 1.125 7.33 Waqar Younis 1.123 7.32 Warne S.K 1.017 6.63 This is a comparison of the bowler's bowling average with that of his peers, from his own team, exactly measured from his first test to last test. As expected, the two so called weak-team bowlers, Hadlee and Murali are on top, Hadlee exceeding 150%. Warne just about goes past 100%, which is understandable. A surprise is Kumble's somewhat low figure. This is a reflection of Kumble's somewhat high bowling average nearing 30. This is not too different from his contemporary bowlers. 10. Performance in won matches Bowler Value Points Warne S.K 0.500 10.00 McGrath G.D 0.492 9.84 Marshall M.D 0.486 9.73 Muralitharan M 0.477 9.54 Lillee D.K 0.451 9.01 Waqar Younis 0.440 8.81 Donald A.A 0.426 8.51 Trueman F.S 0.419 8.38 Ambrose C.E.L 0.414 8.27 Kumble A 0.401 8.01 Hadlee R.J 0.398 7.96 Garner J 0.393 7.86 Wasim Akram 0.384 7.68 Imran Khan 0.364 7.27 Kapil Dev N 0.198 3.96 This is done by doing a composite calculation involving two ratios. The first is the ratio of the bowler wickets in won matches with his own career wickets. The other is the ratio of the bowler wickets in won matches against the team wickets in won matches. This rewards success and as expected, Warne and McGrath lead the pack. Not so surprisingly Kapil Dev is last, indicating that the Indian wins were probably crafted by the spinners during Kapil's era. The presence of Hadlee, Akram, Imran and Kapil in the last five also indicates that their contributions to their team wins was also with the bat. These four are the best batsmen in this elite group of bowlers. Now for the summary table. Total Wkts BowSR RpO WkQty AwAvg TORto TmLd Peer1 Peer2 WinId Muralitharan M 87.54 10.00 7.52 9.10 7.87 7.74 6.99 10.00 9.53 9.25 9.54 McGrath G.D 85.38 7.04 8.18 8.98 7.46 9.70 10.00 6.85 9.84 7.49 9.84 Hadlee R.J 84.89 5.39 8.42 8.29 9.18 9.31 8.75 8.26 9.33 10.00 7.96 Marshall M.D 83.36 4.70 9.30 7.99 8.92 9.35 8.87 6.89 10.00 7.63 9.73 Ambrose C.E.L 82.72 5.06 7.62 10.00 7.77 9.98 9.46 6.76 9.76 8.04 8.27 Imran Khan 81.00 4.53 7.79 8.74 10.00 7.99 9.21 7.40 9.09 8.98 7.27 Lillee D.K 80.76 4.44 8.17 7.61 9.54 8.70 9.33 7.62 8.59 7.74 9.01 Donald A.A 79.75 4.12 9.24 7.19 7.79 8.93 9.92 7.01 9.24 7.80 8.51 Garner J 79.34 3.24 8.41 9.12 8.61 10.00 8.09 6.74 9.73 7.54 7.86 Warne S.K 78.63 8.85 6.99 8.18 7.17 8.33 6.35 7.77 8.35 6.63 10.00 Trueman F.S 76.86 3.84 8.72 8.35 6.91 8.04 9.04 6.71 9.25 7.62 8.38 Wasim Akram 76.37 5.18 7.60 8.49 7.59 8.77 7.86 6.92 8.77 7.51 7.68 Waqar Younis 75.84 4.66 10.00 5.02 7.89 7.99 8.72 6.63 8.79 7.32 8.81 Kumble A 71.40 7.74 5.16 7.95 7.96 4.26 7.64 8.21 7.14 7.33 8.01 Kapil Dev N 68.24 5.43 5.61 7.49 9.25 5.83 9.84 6.14 7.00 7.70 3.96 It does not matter which route is taken, be it the high road or low road, be it the country road or the highway, be it the scenic route or the road through the concrete jungle, there is only one destination. The one which proclaims Muralitharan as the best amongst the equals. Let no one forget the X-factor here, the impact Muralitharan has had on Sri Lankan cricket. Glenn McGrath comes in next, a well-deserved place for this outstanding metronome. Richard Hadlee, the legendary fast bowler from down under clocks in the third position. Malcolm Marshall, that fearsome Bajan fast bowling "giant" is in fourth position, closely followed by the other Caribbean giant, this time physically also, Curtley Ambrose.