Australia are in for some tough times ahead because they no longer have the services of the best pace bowler of all time.

A definition of the criteria-
i. Bowlers who have picked up at least 150 wickets in ODI cricket are considered.
ii. A time-adjustment has been made to compare players across eras. Just like batsmen of an earlier era are disadvantaged by a slower pace of the game at their time, bowlers of today are disadvantaged by the faster pace and quicker scoring. Richard Hadlee bowled at a time when batsmen scored at an average of 4 to 4.5 runs an over, where as today a run a ball is the norm. Therefore, economy rates show an increasing trend. So do bowler averages though the trend is not as pronounced. Similar to the adjustment made for batsmen, a time-adjustment has been made to account for this difference across eras.
iii. Bowling points have been defined as a combination of average and economy rate (measured as runs per 100 balls). Like with the batsmen, a simple multiplication of the two factors may be considered, but that would not be completely fair since economy rates and averages are not measured on the same base. In order to account for this difference, bowling points are measured as Avg * (Eco-rate + 40). This number should be as low as possible, since great bowlers concede fewer runs per wicket (average) and concede fewer runs per 100 balls (eco-rate). Instead of taking a reverse scale, a reciprocal of this number has been taken and multiplied by a suitable constant number to avoid fractional values. This ends up measuring the bowling points on a scale with 6000 as the highest, making it comparable with the batting scale. For instance, Shoaib Akhtar has an average of 23.2 and an economy rate of 77.3. His adjusted numbers are 22.8 and 74.7, an improvement to account for the era he plays in. The Avg * (Eco-rate +40) gives him a preliminary score of 2620, the number that should be as low as possible. Finally, the reciprocal of this number and adjusted to avoid fractional numbers gives him a bowling score of 4966 points. Not that complicated really!
iv. Finally, a longevity adjustment has been made. This rewards bowlers who have picked up more wickets. To the bowling points calculated above, the number of wickets taken by the bowler has been added. Therefore, Akhtar ends with 4966 + 219 = 5185 points. And that's the final score. The longevity bonus does not impact the ratings significantly, only contributing 5-10% of the overall score. However, in cases of bowlers with similar scores, the bowler with more wickets gets the edge.

And here's how the top 10 stack-up.

10. Waqar Younis- 5064 points
The original Sultan of Swing (and Reverse-Swing), Waqar Younis ran through batting line-ups with his fast yorkers. He ended up with 416 wickets, but enough gave away too many runs in his efforts to pick up wickets. That resulted in an economy rate of 4.7 runs per over, high for someone who played predominantly in the 1990s, and 10th position on this list.

9. Makhaya Ntini- 5116 points
A reason South Africa never really dropped off the radar amongst top international teams is because Ntini spear-headed the attack and made up for the losses of Alan Donald and more recently, Shaun Pollock. South Africa's first black cricketer, Makhaya Ntini currently has 257 ODI wickets and will be hoping to joining to 300 club soon.

8. Shoaib Akhtar- 5185 points
Disclaimer- these ratings only consider performances in international ODI cricket and not off the field behaviour! Despite all that's been made up of bad boy Akhtar, the Rawalpindi Express has a phenomenal ODI strike-rate of a wicket every thirty balls and at his best, was the most feared bowler in cricket. Unfortunately, it's not his bowling that sees him in the headlines these days.

7. Brett Lee- 5335 points
In his prime right now, Brett Lee is only going to move higher with time. He already has the best strike-rate of anyone on this list, with a wicket every 29 balls. He took a bit of stick early on in his career which results in an economy rate of 78.5 per 100 balls, but he has become a more complete and controlled bowler. Lightning Lee will certainly be a handful in the upcoming India-Aussie Test series.

6. Curtly Ambrose- 5614 points
This silent giant's first love was basketball, but thankfully for the Windies and cricket lovers, he pursued the leather ball. His economy rate was outstanding, under 3.5 runs per over and the best adjusted economy rate in these rankings. Add too that he did pick up the odd wicket or two, 225 to be precise!

5. Wasim Akram- 5713 points
The only left-arm quickie in this list is Wasim Akram. Listing his credentials would take an entire article. Suffice to say, 502 wickets at 3.89 runs per coupled with 414 test wickets might just make him the greatest pace-bowler of all-time. He loses out on this list because his average 23.5 is not as good as the others in front of him.

4. Alan Donald- 5759 points
"White Lightning", as he was fondly known, Alan Donald took the world by storm at the 1992 World Cup during South Africa's return to international cricket. The sight of the war-paint wearing tear-away quick running in intimidated batsmen and captured the attention of millions world-wide. He ended with his ODI career with 272 wickets at an average of just 21.8.

3. Shaun Pollock- 5798 points
Immaculate, accurate and frugal would best describe Shaun Pollock. How else could a bowler go at just 3.7 runs per over in this day and age. Even in the later stages of his career, Pollock was miserly leading South Africa to the 2007 World Cup semi-final with an economical spell against England, and edges out his counterparts as the top Protean in this list.

2. Richard Hadlee- 5989 points
158 wickets in 115 ODIs for Sir Richard Hadlee, one can only wonder how much more he could have accomplished had there been more cricket at this time. The numbers speak for themselves, an economy rate of 3.3 and an average of 21.6. Among the great all-rounders of the 1980s, Hadlee clearly stood out as the best bowler in the lot.

1. Glenn McGrath- 6161 points

The best of the best- Glenn McGrath possesses a knack to bowl an unwavering line and constantly in the "corridor of uncertainty". 250 matches, 381 wickets, an average of 22 and an economy rate of 3.88 for a man who played more than half of his cricket in the new millennium. He led his country to three world cup triumphs, and finished Man of the Series in the 2007 edition. "Pigeon" made a number of top-class batsmen look like lame ducks and Australia certainly has not be flying as high without him

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Categories: Cricket. Author: SacHu