Glenn McGrath

Glenn McGrath is the definitive answer to a question fast bowling has never fully settled: does raw pace matter more than control? He built a 14-year career on a probing, back-of-a-length line rather than genuine speed, and finished it with 563 Test wickets — seventh-most of any bowler in Test history, and no bowler above him on that list took their wickets at a lower average — a record built during the most dominant stretch in Australian cricket history, three World Cup wins and years of near-unbroken Test supremacy.

Line and length as a weapon

McGrath bowled fast-medium, not fast, extracting bounce from his 197cm frame and a hostile, near-identical line just outside off stump rather than from raw pace, rarely straying from it regardless of conditions, opponent or match situation. That discipline, repeated over after over, is what separated him from bowlers who were quicker but less persistent, wearing batsmen down rather than blasting them out. Where genuinely quick bowlers rely on reaction time to beat the bat, McGrath's method was patience: drawing batsmen into playing at deliveries just wide enough of off stump to edge, over spells that could run past 20 overs in a day without the ball swinging or seaming much at all. He was also, from early in his career, an outstanding outfielder with a strong, accurate arm, and a surprisingly stubborn lower-order batsman — nicknamed "Pigeon" for his skinny legs, he once stood his ground for 53 deliveries in a Boxing Day Test against South Africa to help build a national record tenth-wicket stand against that opponent.

Sending a message

McGrath's influence went beyond his own figures. During Australia's 1995 tour of the West Indies — the series that ended nearly two decades of West Indian dominance of world cricket — he took the unprecedented step of bouncing the West Indies' own fast bowlers when they came in to bat. Ricky Ponting later said the move told the rest of the team, and the opposition, that "this Australian team is fair dinkum." It was an early sign of the uncompromising standard McGrath set for the side he anchored for the next decade.

The predictor

McGrath's most distinctive trait was psychological as much as technical: he named his targets before a series began, in public, and often delivered. Ahead of a series against West Indies, he told interviewers he would take his 299th Test wicket by dismissing Sherwin Campbell, then his 300th with the very next ball by dismissing Brian Lara — and did exactly that, before completing a hat-trick by removing captain Jimmy Adams two balls later. The tactic did not always work: he targeted Michael Vaughan before the 2002-03 Ashes and Andrew Strauss before the 2005 series, and both batsmen responded with the best form of their careers. McGrath also had a habit of predicting Ashes whitewashes; his forecast of 5-0 to Australia in 2005 proved wrong when England won 2-1, but the same prediction, repeated ahead of the 2006-07 series, came true.

A World Cup record, and why he still sets the template

McGrath led the attack through Australia's hat-trick of World Cup titles in 1999, 2003 and 2007, and finished with 71 World Cup wickets — still the most any bowler has taken in the tournament's history. He retired from international cricket in early 2007, on his own terms and at the height of his powers, rather than adapting his game to Twenty20 as many expected. The case his career made — that unerring control, sustained for years rather than overs, can be as destructive as express pace — remains the reference point for every metronomic new-ball bowler since, from James Anderson to Josh Hazlewood. For his complete Test and one-day record, and the story of his life after cricket, see his player profile.