Courtney Walsh

In order to last longer, some fast bowlers reduce their pace e.g. Sir Richard Hadlee, some remodel their action e.g. Dennis Lillee and some simply reduce their workload e.g. Imran Khan. Well, Courtney Andrew Walsh did NEITHER, bowling relentlessly with a combination of vicious speed, razor sharp accuracy, unbound stamina and supreme control over line-and-length in a career spread across 3 decades and 17 years. Selected for a West Indies team boasting of a who's who of pace bowling, Walsh threw himself into learning the tricks of the trade before eventually being handed over the new ball after 8 years of rigorous education in the domain. Most speculated that being past 30 by then, he was beyond his shelf life, but Walsh turned prophecies over their heads, first in partnership with his best friend Curtly Ambrose when he toppled his mentor Malcolm Marshall's tally of the highest wickets taken for the West Indies, followed by joining Indian legend Kapil Dev and New Zealand's Sir Richard Hadlee in the elite 400 scalp club apart from grabbing the most wickets as of date from either sides in the Sir Frank Worrell Trophy and finally scaling the near superhuman milestone of 500 test victims before officially bowing out of the arena with a match winning spell of 6 wickets in his penultimate appearance. Although several have gone past Walsh's tally of 519 test wickets in the years following his retirement, in regards to the craft and skill set of fast bowling, Walsh stands the test of time as amongst the greatest for all ages. And of course, there might also be avid cricket fans who would remember Walsh as a nightmare for even the greatest of batsmen but with a bat in his own hands, a lovable bunny.