Pakistan's Shoaib Akhtar and Australia's Brett Lee, the world's fastest bowlers, have confirmed their status by topping the league table of quickest deliveries recorded during the Group stage of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2003. According to statistics from host broadcaster Octagon CSI, Akhtar and Lee stand out as the only two bowlers to have broken the 160 km/h mark.
Akhtar's fastest delivery took the speed gun up to 161.3 km/h in Pakistan's match against England, while Lee came close to matching his pace rival, also against England, where his top speed was clocked at 160.7 km/h.
Third fastest bowler in the tournament to date is New Zealand's Shane Bond whose quickest delivery of 153.4 km/h was unleashed against Canada. Only 0.2 km/h slower than Bond was West Indies youngster Jermaine Lawson, who surprised the Kenyan batsmen with his pace during his one appearance of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2003 against Kenya.
The fastest recorded deliveries by bowlers from each participating country are:
Australia
Brett Lee 160.7 km/h v England Jason Gillespie 148.3 km/h v Zimbabwe Andy Bichel 146.1 km/h v England
Bangladesh
Mashrafe Mortaza 139.5 km/h v Canada Tapash Baisya 138.9 km/h v Kenya Talha Jubair 135.9 km/h v West Indies
Canada
Davis Joseph 140.5 km/h v Bangladesh Sanjayan Thuraisingham 135.5 km/h v Bangladesh Austin Codrington 135.3km/h v New Zealand
England
James Anderson 144 km/h v Australia Andrew Flintoff 143.9 km/h v India Andrew Caddick 143.3 km/h v Namibia
Holland
Edger Schiferli 138.4 km/h v Namibia Roland Lefebvre 126.1 km/h v India Tim de Leede 124.8 km/h v Namibia
India
Ashish Nehra 149.7 km/h v Zimbabwe Zaheer Khan 147.4 km/h v Holland Javagal Srinath 143.0 km/h v England
Kenya
Thomas Odoyo 135.1 km/h v Bangladesh Martin Suji 131.2 km/h v West Indies Peter Ongondo km/h v Bangladesh
Namibia
Gerrie Snyman 138.2 km/h v Pakistan Burton van Rooi 134.7 km/h v Australia
New Zealand
Shane Bond 153.4 km/h v Canada Andre Adams 143.8 km/h v West Indies Jacob Oram 140.6 km/h v Canada
Pakistan
Shoaib Akhtar 161.3 km/h v England Waqar Younis 142.6 km/h v India Abdul Razzaq 141.5 km/h v Holland
South Africa
Makhaya Ntini 149.4 km/h v Sri Lanka Monde Zondeki 141.0 km/h v Sri Lanka Jacques Kallis 139.8 km/h v Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Dilhara Fernando 147.9km/h v Bangladesh Prabath Nissanka 143.5 km/h v Bangladesh Pulasthi Gunaratne 138.6 km/h v South Africa
West Indies
Jermaine Lawson 153.2 km/h v Kenya Mervyn Dillon 143.0 km/h v Kenya Pedro Collins 143.0 km/h v Sri Lanka
Zimbabwe
Andy Blignaut 145.6 km/h v New Zealand Douglas Hondo 140.0 km/h v New Zealand
-Mark Harrison