Jeff Thomson
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| Full name | Jeffery Robert Thomson | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born |
16 August 1950 Greenacre, New South Wales, Australia |
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| Batting style | Right-handed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowling style | Right arm fast | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Role | Bowler, commentator | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| International information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| National side | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Test debut (cap 262) | 29 December 1972 v Pakistan | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Last Test | 20 August 1985 v England | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ODI debut (cap 28) | 1 January 1975 v England | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Last ODI | 3 June 1985 v England | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Domestic team information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1974–1986 | Queensland | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1981 | Middlesex | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1972–1974 | New South Wales | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Career statistics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Source: Cricinfo, 4 November 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jeffrey Robert Thomson (born 16 August 1950 in Greenacre, New South Wales) is a former Australian cricketer. Known as "Thommo", he is considered by many in the sport to be the fastest bowler of all time. He was the opening partner of fellow fast bowler Dennis Lillee; their combination was one of the most fearsome in Test cricket history. Commenting on their bowling during the 1974–75 season, Wisden wrote: "... it was easy to believe they were the fastest pair ever to have coincided in a cricket team".
In 1975, during an exhibition match against the West Indies, he was timed using high-speed cameras with a speed of 160.45 km/h, and in 1976, he was timed at 160.58 km/h. In 1979, he won the fastest bowling competition in a year he was banned from bowling, and clocked at 147.9 km/h, and also taken the most wickets in 40-degree heat in Perth.
Most cricketers, experts and viewers who have watched cricket from at least the 1970s rate Thomson as the fastest they have ever seen. Richie Benaud rated Thomson as the fastest he had seen since Frank Tyson. Australian wicket-keeper Rod Marsh kept wicket to Thomson for most of his Test career and claimed that Thomson bowled upwards of 180 km/h. Ian Chappell and Ashley Mallett have also opined the same. Thomson himself noted that he had been timed at the batsman's end of the pitch (by which time the ball has slowed) and believes had he been timed out of the hand he would have been closer to 180 km/h.Frank Tyson wrote that "at a muzzle velocity of 99.6 m.p.h. Thompson is such a fast bowler that the batsman has to begin playing a stroke against him more than .062 of a second before he lets go of the ball".
Many of the players of the 1970s and 1980s generation also rate Thomson as the fastest they ever faced or even saw. West Indian batting legend Viv Richards, rates Thomson as the fastest he has ever faced. Richards' opinion counts for a lot, as he faced almost all the fastest bowlers of all time through the 1970s and 1980s in John Snow, Dennis Lillee, Andy Roberts, Imran Khan, Michael Holding, Sylvester Clarke, Wayne Daniel, Malcolm Marshall, Patrick Patterson, Alan Ward, Len Pascoe, Garth Le Roux, Graham Dilley etc., and even Devon Malcolm and Waqar Younis in the early 1990s, at various levels, in International matches, the WSC, and the Caribbean, Australian and England County leagues. Indian batting great Sunil Gavaskar also reckons Thomson the fastest he faced over a career spanning over 20 years. Former West Indies captain Clive Lloyd regards Thomson as the fastest bowler he has ever seen.Michael Holding, himself often considered an extremely fast bowler in his prime, believes Thomson to be the fastest he ever saw.Geoffrey Boycott rates Thomson joint fastest with Michael Holding among all the bowlers that he has seen.Martin Crowe, who faced many of the fastest of the mid and late 1980s, and Allan Donald, Waqar Younis and Devon Malcolm at their quickest in the early 1990s, rates Thomson as the fastest he ever faced (followed by Michael Holding), though he faced Thomson only in 1982 early in his own career, when Thomson was three years away from retirement from international cricket.
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