Who is the best bowler in the world?

Who is the king of bowling in the cricket world? Is it a pace bowler or a spin bowler? Who is the best at test, 50 over or T20 level?

If you look at the rankings you will see that Dale Steyn is ranked the best at Test Level and to be fair this is hard to dispute. The South African paceman regularly bowls at circa 90mph and maintains a good line and length. Graeme Swann is ranked second which reflects the fact that he is a dependable exponent of off spin who bowls accurately with variety and unpredictability. James Anderson, Morne Morkel and Zaheer Khan complete the top five. I would place Morne Morkel ahead of Zaheer and Anderson simply on the basis that his height advantage adds bounce and venom to his deliveries making him a more fearsome competitor than the Englishman and Indian bowlers respectively. Zaheer deserves fourth spot on the basis that he is the most dependable seamer in cricket. The Indian opening bowler swings the ball both ways, has a killer slower ball and ranks among the best his country has ever produced alongside, Javagal Srinath and Kapil Dev. Jimmy Anderson has become an accomplished exponent of swing bowling, delivering consistently at around 85mph, Anderson' bowling combines pace, swing and bounce.

In the shorter forms of the game Lasith Malinga leads the game with the best in-swinging yorker since Waqar Younis. At The IPL Malinga was streets ahead of the competition, scaring his opponents with his full length deliveries and bamboozling batsmen with his low slung 'skidders' as described by pundits. The only thing stopping Malinga challenging the Test ranks is that he has decided to retire from this form of the game.

Other bowlers of note include Chris Tremlett who bowls a brisk pace with dramatic bounce, as a result of his towering 6 foot 5 frame, Doug Bollinger, a brisk left arm fast medium bowler who is adept at bowling a disciplined line and length, Mitchell Johnson, the Australian pace machine and Umar Gul, the Pakistani star who is known for his usefulness at the death of the shorter forms of the game.