TEN GREATEST BOWLERS OF ALL TIME

10. Anil Kumbley:

Anil Kumabley, nicknamed "jumbo" is a former Indian leg-spinner who is a legend in himself. He deserves as much higher place in the indian history of cricket as possessed by the greats like Gavaskar, Kapil and Sachin. Kumbley, a tall and attractive guy, initially wanted to serve as a fast-bowler but later on emerged as a brilliant leg spin bowler with the great skill of bowling googly  perhaps at the best all over. He holds a record of 619 test and 337 ODI wickets, highest for any Indian bowler in any format. His spell of 10/74 against Pakistan at Delhi is considered to be the greatest of all time.

9. Waqar Younis:

 Waqar Younis is a former Pakistani cricketer who was a genuine fast bowler and fastest of his time. An aggressive fast bowler with the great ability of swinging the ball three ways, in, out and reverse. He was also good at bowling accurate and deadly bouncers and yorkers. He holds many records of test and ODI cricket, including third highest ODI wickets of all time, 416 ODI wickets at 23.84 and 373 wickets at 23.56. He also holds the world record of taking most no. of ODI five-wicket hauls. He played a key tole in the famous 1992 CWC win by Pakistan. He deserves to be in any list of all time greatest bowlers.

8. Clarrie Grimmett:

Late C. Grimmett was a former Oz cricketer who was a genuine leg-break googly bowler of his time. He went on to play between 1925 and 1936. He was the best bowler of his era and was a aprt of the Oz side captained by Sir Don Bradman. He played a total of 37 tests and took 216 wickets as a whole at an average of around 24. He was a master of the leg-spin of his time with the ability to bowl googly at high accuracy.

7. Glenn Mcgrath:

Glenn Mcgrath is the former Australian bowler who was a brilliant seam and wing bowler  According to me, personally, he is the deadliest pace bowler of the era 1993-2007,he played within. He was a bowler with utmost accuracy, brilliance and consistency. He, rather not a speed express, was highly accurate and targeted the best batsman of the opposition including Sachin, Lara and many more of that time. He went on to take 563 and 381 Test and ODI wickets respectively at an average of around 21. He holds may records in the cricket history and known to be one of the invincible bowlers of all time who always dominated even the top class batsmen. He deserves to be in surely any of such lists,

6.Sydney Barnes:

S. Barnes was an English cricketer who served the international cricket from 1901 to 1914. He was a bowler who had a great variation in his bowling. He was mainly a fast-medium bowler, but highly accurate in terms of length and bounce of the delivery. He also used to vary the pace of the bowl highly and was able to finger-spin and accurate yorkers, forcing batsmen o play the ball. He grabbed a total of 189 wickets in 27 tests at a mere average of 16, including 27, 5-wicket and 7, 10-wicket hauls. His horrible statistics of bowling make him to be among the very best bowlers of all time.

5.Dennis Lilee:

Dennis Lilee is probably the greatest Oz fast bowler and also of his generation. He was a bowler with great aggression and "never say die attitude". He is the very first bowler to take 300 test wickets and fastest at his time to take 100 ODI wickets with the highly respectable bowling averages of 23.92 and 20.82. He got prestigious awards like "Wisden cricketer of the year" and many more for his services to the cricket. He struggled with injuries throughout the career but whenever he came on the field, made fortunes for the team. His pair with Jeff Thomson and caught Marsh bowled Lilee were the famous and regular features of the cricket. The way, he used to grip the ball, was imitated later on by many cricketers.

Top ten bowlers of all time:
(6) Sydney Barnes, (7) Glenn McGrath, (8) Clarrie Grimmett, (9) Waqar Younis, (10) Anil Kumble

4.Muttaiah Muralitharan:

M. Muralitharan is the former Srilankan off-spinner, who does not need any great introduction. He is probably one of the greatest off-break bowlers ever in the history of cricket. He is the cricketer with almost all the test-cricket bowling records associated with his name e.g. highest number of wickets in Test and ODI both,most five wicket hauls, most ten wicket hauls and many more. But only thing he is often criticized for is his bowling action and the larger proportion of wickets to be those of tail-enders. Above all Murali is a bowling maestro and probably the greatest Srilankan cricketer ever, Sachin of bowling statistics and a master of "doosra" ball. He deserves to be among the top 5 bowlers of all time in any list. With a superb bowling average of around 21 in every format, and with many match-winning performances, he is really one of the greatest bowlers ever.

3. Wasim Akram:

Wasim Akram is a former Pakistani cricketer, who is known to be the best swing bowler ever able to swing the ball all the ways possible  He was a discovery of Pakistan cricket in the year 1984 when he was just 18, in a cricket-camp by Javed Miadad, the captain at that time. He is, doubtlessly  the best student and scholar of the swing bowling, with the gifted approach of bowling it in-swing, out-swing, reverse-swing and swing with the wind. He is the very first bowler to get 500 ODI wickets(a total of 502, the second best of all time) and 414 test wickets at the respective bowling averages of around 23.5. He also holds the all time world record of grabbing highest number of List A cricket wickets. He played the very key role in winning 1992 CWC by Pakistan and served the cricket world for more than 18 long years.

2.Shane Warne:

Shame Keith Warne is a former Australian cricketer, who was the best ever spin bowler with the specialty in the leg-spin. He was the one to bowl the famous "ball of the century", the very first ball by him in the Ashes, on which he cleanly bowled Mike Gatting of England. Shane Warne is called to be a bowler able to make the ball spin even on the ice or glass surface. He was the very first bowler to get 500, 600 and 700 wickets in test matches. He finished his career with 708 test and 293 ODI wickets  A bowler, with the ability to bring high variation in his bowling from top class leg-spin to brilliant googly to surprising straight flipper delivery, made Oz side win the CWC of 1999.

1. Sir Richard Hadlee:

Richard Hadlee is a former New Zealand cricketer who was a master of swing bowling and was able to move it both ways. He is probably the greatest player ever in the New Zealand history of cricket. He is the very first bowler to take 400 test wickets. He went on to take 36 five-wicket and 9 ten-wicket hauls in test matches. He was a master of swing bowling and was able to bowl both way swing, in and out. He was so much consistent at getting wickets and was full of sportsmanship. Many of his county seasons were finished at a mere bowling average of around 15. He was a bowler to be knighted during his cricket career and finished with the wicket even at the last bowl of his career. He took more than 100 five wicket hauls in his first class career.

Top ten bowlers of all time:
(1) Sir Richard Hadlee, (2) Shane Warne, (3) asim Akram, (4) Muralitharan, (5) Dennis Lilee