Silent Assasin. Review on Glen McGrath

Glen Mcgrath has been one of the most successful fast bowlers of recent times. He is certainly a bowler who can walk in to any cricketing side.

He does not have the speed of Shoaib Akhtar, Brett Lee, Alan Donald.

He does not have natural advantage of a left arm bowler like Chaminda Vaas, Zaheer Khan, Pedro Colllins.

He does not possess fearsome bouncer, which is a commonly used weapon of a fast bowler.

But......

He has tremendous control over line and length. He can bowl into that ''Blind Corridor'' just outside the off stump, on a good length for a full day.

He can easily switch his line for a left handed as well as right handed batsman.

He can swing the bowl ''just'' that much to tempt the batsman into stroke and still get only an edge.

His dedication to the game is impeccable. Any time his captain needs him to bowl, he is right there.

I think even without speed, he is most feared bowler in the world, especially in first few overs.

But most of all, what I like about him is that little smile on his face. Australian cricketers are highly competitive cricketers and they are known to overstep, more often than not. But you will rarely find McGrath involved in any controversy. Even when he gets a well set batsman out or dismisses an important batsman he appears to be happy with himself. Seldom will he gesture to the batsman. He appears to you as a fierce competitor who is a gentleman at his heart.

This fact was recently re-emphasised when he responded to SOS call from family of Steve Waugh. Fighting the bush fires for long hours is strenuous and doing it for others (even if he is a team mate) requires big heart.

Certainly a Cricketer who should be a role model for many around the world!