The Fastest Cricket Players in History

Cricket has long been a hugely popular sport - it’s been going for so long that most people don’t even realise that “The Ashes” was once a nickname that was used to insult the losing team. Despite this long tradition of annual cricket matches, it feels like records are being broken more and more frequently as clothing technology, understanding of how our bodies work and nutrition all regularly improve. International sport has long been competitive with professional players striving to be the best. However, there are now some impressive World Records in place, so it does leave people to wonder what’s next? Surely there is only so fast we can bowl, for example, maybe we’ll need to start to think of new statistics to pay attention to. However, for now, who are some of the fastest cricket players of all time?

Shoaib Akhtar (Pakistan)

Shoaib Akhtar has long been known as one of the fastest bowlers of all time. He bowled 161.3 km/h in a One Day International during the 2003 Cricket World Cup while playing for the England cricket team. He has since retired but the record still stands as one to beat – he currently holds the title of being the fastest bowler in the world however, there will be a new generation of professional cricket players following in his footsteps hoping to smash that record out of the park.

Brett Lee (Australia)

Brett Lee is one of the only people to even come close to matching Akhtar’s bowling speed record. His fastest bowl was 161.1km/h when he played against New Zealand.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni (India)

Dhoni has long been known as one of the fastest runners in the whole sport. The former Indian captain managed to clock in speeds of over 31km/h while running between two wickets when his team played a double against Australia at T20I.

David Warner (Australia)

David Warner was captain of the Australian cricket team until recently and was known for being one of the fastest runners in the game. Running at 2.78, he’s known as one of the best with a huge number of accolades across all areas of the game. What’s most impressive is that he’s actually finished 1.5m faster than he was 5 years ago!!

Fidel Edwards (West India)

The west Indian cricket player is known as one of the best bowlers in the sport, and he’s surprisingly not too far behind Shoaib Akhtar. Edwards bowled his fastest speed of 157.7km/h against South Africa. As well as being fast, Edwards is also known as one of the best all-round players on his team and a hugely competitive bowler.

Considering that cricket has been such a longstanding national sport, it really is surprising to see so many records being beaten in the last 20 years. Scientists and the teams themselves have ploughed millions into researching training, nutrition and clothing and shoe technology to get the edge for their players, and it’s clearly worked – let’s see what the future for cricket and sporting records hold!