Greatest swing bowler

[Justcrazy]

Is Richard Haddle the greatest swing bowler ever? I am not asking about the speed, just the ability to move the ball?

[Sanchez]

Quite possibly. Can't think of too many others, Botham maybe? Or even Akram himself?

[driver26]

Didnt see the oldies but from ones that I saw , Akram was the best. From Indian Side, Agarkar was a great swing bowler.

[Blitz]

I'd like to nominate Mohammed Asif in that case. Perfect control over out and inswing, and big swing at that. Great records, even on dead pitches, in a batsmen era.

[SIMBA]

Mohammed Asif was a genius. He could world out any batsman and make them look like a fool eg: KP, laxman.

Akram was a legend- the king of swing. He bowled some insane bowls in his career that were impossible to explain and against science.

Akram was a magician with the ball.

[jeetu]

Hadlee was the best with new ball , Akram with old ball.

[Blitz]

Hadlee was the best with new ball , Akram with old ball.

Waqar? If we're talking old ball swing.

[Justcrazy]

Yes Waqar did swing it prodigiously with the old ball, at his peak he was so quick too, so swing at high pace a deadly combination.

[Robert]

Is Richard Haddle the greatest swing bowler ever? I am not asking about the speed, just the ability to move the ball?

He wasn't a big swinger as I recall, though he could make it go both ways.

The younger Botham swung it both ways prodigiously.

Waqar had consistent massive late inswing.

[Shayan]

I always felt Asif had more movement off the pitch than in the air. His wickets of Sehwag and Laxman in that Karachi game were all from deliveries that seamed in.

Out of the bowlers i've seen recently, Anderson swings it a lot and Irfan Pathan(!) early in his career could seriously swing the new ball.

[Down2Earth]

old ball swing, then waqar wins easily.

swing irrespective of the condition of the ball, wasim easily.

[khan_a]

waqar in his prime had the best old ball swing. but it was a short period and it was all inswingers, with akram he made the old ball move both ways, and even the new ball. he literally had the ball on a string. easily wasim akram for me. seen clips of richard headlee, not great amounts of swing but he did swing it both ways.

[Poison]

Asif was not a swing bowler. Lol.

[sa88]

The man they call the Sultan of Swing - Wasim Akram.

Asif should really not be considered here. He had all the talent in the world and wrists made from rubber. He was given chance after chance and he threw it away. The man barely took 100 Test match wicket and played only 23 Tests over a 6 year period. Entirely his own fault.

Of the current bowlers - Anderson in English conditions can produce a lot of swing. He'll go far.

[TheHK16]

anwar ali

[Wasim_Waqar]

Wasim could really swing it prodigiously both ways even in one delivery from extreme angles e.g. Croft, Lamb.

Waqar was the same and I appreciated his sling more especially as the batsmen would line up to play the ball through mid-off and get beaten by pace and swing with the ball hitting leg-stump!!!

That was probably more reverse-swing.

In terms of orthodox swing, I haven't seen many swing bowlers since 1992 although Fanie de Villiers was very good. I agree that Irfan Pathan swung it big with the new ball and as Wasim lost pace, he looked to swing the new ball with greater efficacy. He could swing the new ball throughout his career though.

Anderson and Hoggard have been good at times and I really appreciated Shane Bond's inswing with the new ball

I remember Waqar at the Oval in 1992- he swung it both ways. Gooch and Atherton struggled vs. outswinger with the new ball on a very quick wicket

[Sir_Afridi]

Irfan Pathan

[cornered-tigers]

Yes Waqar did swing it prodigiously with the old ball, at his peak he was so quick too, so swing at high pace a deadly combination.

It was reverse, not conventional, I had a post about it, Akram for seeing takes the mantle,

[Robert]

In terms of orthodox swing, I haven't seen many swing bowlers since 1992

Cork
Hoggard
Caddick
Anderson

[cornered-tigers]

Imran Khan had banana swing at his peak

[Sledger]

Waqar in the latter part of his career used the new ball as better as anyone I've seen, particularly the tour to England around 01 in both tests and ODIs. Wasim was better with the new ball overall though.

[khan_a]

aus - gillespie, damien fleming, paul reifal.
sa- pollock, klusenar
pak- wasim akram, waqar younis, azhar mahmood, razzaq early in his career, shoaib akhtar, asif could exploit swinging conditions although he was a seam bowler.
ind - irfan pathan, agarkar.
eng- hoggard, anderson, gough.
nz - chris cairns, bond had natural inswing,
w.i - corry collymore, pedro collins.
s.i - chaminda vaas later on, kulasekara.

they are some names that come into mind who swung the ball and played after 1992

[JibranAnsari]

isn't dale steyn a swing bowler?

[Looney]

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:moyo

[UmarAkmals-fan]

waqar younis the king of swing ..without a shadow of a doubt ..those inswing toe crusshers were just unreal :waqar :hatsoff

[mastermind_quad]

Anybody remember Debasish Mohanty ...useless bowler but he was able to swing very well.

[kingusama92]

Wasim Akram.

Magician when it came to get the ball to swing.

[KB]

Wasim Akram - could swing the wall wickedly late. He could swing the new or old ball, in or out, over or around the wicket and all at great pace

[Wasim_Waqar]

Cork
Hoggard
Caddick
Anderson

If you do note, I do mention Hoggard and Anderson :P

Caddick was good on his day. I would say Cork was better with the older ball- I remember his hat-trick at Old Trafford :D It was excellent.

[Gabbar Singh]

Sydney Barnes

[Wasim_Waqar]

My brother who is a lot older than me puts Alderman up there

[*sallu*]

First of all, a lot of you here are confusing two different questions
(i) Who swung the ball the most?
(ii) Who was the best swing bowler.

Yes, Waqar Younis generated prodigious in-swing with the old ball and yes he was lethal at his peak (and even when he was not at his peak).
However, when compared with Wasim Akram, he was not as skilled as moving the ball both ways and from both sides of the wicket, as Wasim Akram was. Anyone remember those balls to Lamb and Lewis? Those 2 balls summarized Wasim Akram's skill perfectly - for a left armer to be able to have such control and able to extract the kind of movement he did from Left Arm around, and that too one moving in and the other one away, was unbelievable. Wasim opened up new angles of swing bowling that were until then unheard of.
Moreover, he did not enjoy the same control of swing that Wasim Akram had. Yes its great seeing those fantastic yorker videos on youtube, but in between those Waqar dished up a lot more loose deliveries than Wasim did.

Which is why for me, Wasim Akram is the greatest swing bowler that I have seen, albeit I haven't had a chance to see many older cricketers who were and still are widely considered to be fantastic swing bowlers.

Names like James Anderson, Praveen Kumar and Terry Alderman may pop up here, but from what I've seen (and heard in Alderman's case) these guys rely exclusively on conditions.
Anderson is a different bowler in English conditions, just as Alderman was a different bowler when the free mantle used to come in at Perth.

Another notable mention in recent past would be Dale Steyn, although he doesn't rely exclusively on swing like the others mentioned here, I love the shape he gets on the ball at the kind of pace he is able to extract. Fantastic bowler.

But yeah, Wasim Akram easily the best I've seen.

[alberto]

mohammed asif who could literallly pull special deliveries out of the bag from nowhere

[ItsMeK1]

Dominic Cork.

[Justcrazy]

So it looks like Wasim is winning this thread.

I am surprised that no one mentioned Chaminda Vaas.

[Justcrazy]

I think he deserved one mention, even though he is not a serious contender.

[ash 68]

Asif was the best in the last few years along with Jimmy/Zaheer

Hadlee was outstanding but came from an era of many fine bowlers

Pollock, McGrath, Akram were very good also

[MMHS]

Actually, Sir Richard was not a swing bowler; he was more of a "Hit the Deck" bowler. However, the great bowler he had been, obviously could swing the new ball as well, better than most. That's why people used to say that on green tops, Hadlee was the most effective bowler. he would have targeted a spot on awkward length, line & would have made life measurable for the batsmen, hitting the same spot time & again, moving the ball both ways.

When we talk about pure swing, almost all the top swing bowlers 'll come from subcontinent, because, here the wickets are barren & dusty. Hardly there is anything on the pitch for the quick bowlers to use their shoulders or wrist. What I have seen (Last 25 years), Kapil had a natural out-swing, so did Aaquib Javed had; while Imran had a big In-swing (Read deeper). Surprisingly, though he didn't have pace to back up, Manoj Probhakor was a big, big In-swing bowler with the new ball. Imran was a prodigious swinger of Old ball & I heard that Sarfaraz was also very good. Then came the 2Ws & Asif.

I think, Waquar was the bigger swing bowler, as he could swung it both ways big time. However, though he had very good out-swing with the new ball, but with the old one, not that much. To me Wasim was the ultimate Swing Sultan, not only he could swing it both ways, he could have done it either way for lefty or right handers & most importantly, he had late swing & had the measure of exactly how much it 'll swing. Often Waquar's late in-swingers stuck the pad on it's way down, but, any right-hander, if ever had missed Wasim's in-comers (his out-swingers), or padded up; you know, he is gone. Wasim would have got so many more wickets had the DRS been there; so many times Umpires gave BoD to batsmen on this particular ball of him.

Shamefully, Asif was a different class; I hardly ever have seen a spinner using the wrist so effectively, let alone quickies. Some of the movements he could do with the new ball was unexplainable, defying the law of physics (See his 2 wickets at Karachi, Laxman & Sachin, I guess) & he was just entering the age when Swing bowlers start to excel most. He probably gave Kallis the worst ever Chinese water treatment in his last tour of SAF, but such an idiot.

Outside Sub-continent, I think Botham had very good out-swing, so did Hendricks, Criss Old, Hoggard & for few months Bob Massie & Gary Gilmore. Currently Anderson is swinging well with the new ball. But the best ever I have seen outside Subcontinent is Terry Alderman; he was so good with his "Swinging out & then cutting it back" to right handers that in 2 Ashes tours of '81 & '89, he took 84 (42 each) wickets in 12 Tests, probably 50%+ of them LBW or Bowled, without offering.

[cricketfanfirst]

@MMHS -- Always good to read your posts.

[Ashraful_Rox]

:nehra specialist last over swing bowler
Also, Prasad I think he's going to be our next bowling coach. :)

[CoolSERAZ]

bob massie was a pretty good swing bowler i have heard. took 16 in his debut match.

[freelance_cricketer]

Irfan Pathan :22: :butt :yk :moyo

[liaqat]

yes i remember him well,,, he could swing it but had no control........
many could swing it but i guess asif and hadley had the control,,

wasim was differnt he had guile with him,

[akamaka]

Wasim! Without a doubt.

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[spoiled]

amir..coud have been

i am surprised no one even mentioned him

[HuZi]

amir..coud have been

i am surprised no one even mentioned him

:lol: because he isnt as good as the GREAT swing bowlers

[attock]

WASIM AKRAM................No one even comes to close to him........Muhammed Amir was one that was touching Akram and could have been a very good bowler.............