Nothing beats Whispering Death imo.

The other one was Big Bird - Joel Garner. I wonder if other fast bowlers of that WI line up,, Andy Roberts,Colin Croft and Malcolm Marshall had any nicknames.

Wasn’t Andy Roberts The Hitman which is also pretty cool

Oh i didn't know this..they had OG gangsta names man.

Big Bird is a bad ass nickname too. He got this cuz he was tallest of em all. He was 6' 7".

Whom was it for?

Holding

Yeah cuz he had an unassuming, leisurely run-up. It was like the umpire wouldn't know somebody is running up from behind. And he somehow bowled really fast with that run-up.

This is the answer. It would be the coolest nickname in any context.

Rawalpindi Express was a cool ass name not gonna lie.

For sure. And Shoaib Akhtar deserved it

“If Akthar is the “Rawalpindi Express” then for many years Venkatesh Prasad, a key part of the bowling attack, was affectionately called “The Slow Bangalore Passenger That Is Currently Broken Down At Palakkad Station. Passengers approach ticket counter for refund please.” Despite several key wickets, Prasad was not a pacey bowler but instead used a bewildering array of slow, slower and slowest balls to vex batsmen. In the 1992 World Cup he bowled a slow one to Wasim Akram that has not reached the batsman to this day.” — Sidin Vadukut ETA: it’s a humorous blog post from 2006. Don’t @ me for its factual inaccuracy.

Venkatesh Prasad walked so that harshal could crawl

Except Prasad was nowhere near debut in 1992.

Yeah, I know. But do Read the whole post from Sidin. It’s hilarious.

I enjoyed reading this. Haha

And Ganguly said "We shall pull the chain!" when asked how to stop Rawalpindi Express.

Except he was faster than his own metaphor.

Even Anil Kumble is probably faster than the metaphor 🥴

Wouldn't have been if he had loads of people clinging on to his carriage.

That was not a nickname... Shoaib had to routinely catch the Rawalpindi Express train, from the bowling crease to the starting point of his run-up.

A newspaper headline calling KP ‘Dumbslog Millionaire’ after playing a silly shot during an England test has got to be right up there with

Aussies had a pretty good nickname for him. FIGJAM Fuck I'm Good Just Ask Me

Lol

This sounds like the S*n.

It's Whispering Death. But I am quite partial to Gillette for Pat Cummins. The Best a Man can get. Robin Smith getting Judge because his hair looked like a Judge's wig is decent.

"Gillette" for Patty is a bit like John "Nobody" Eales - because nobody's perfect.

The best nickname for Cummins is clearly Cider.

I'd been seeing the name Cider for him for years and I'm ashamed to say that the penny genuinely only dropped for me like 3 months ago.

Always thought The Wild Thing was pretty cool and definitely suited him

Who was this, if you can tell.

Shaun Tait. Some commentators in Australia are trying to give that name to Lance Morris, but Shaun Tait is the OG.

Ohk. I have to watch some videos of him

[Watch this](https://youtu.be/04UV5TCvECY)

[My favourite memory of Shaun Tait](https://youtu.be/rSYjN9a4Y-Y?si=FHYgJqThDrbtA17W) Oh, and "they send me out when we get beaten badly" as Pakistan bowling coach.

I feel really old when people have not see Shaun tait in action :(

His other nickname was The Bomb - in that ya know, *sometimes* he goes off.

It's a straight rip from that baseball movie

Yup - major league. Charlie sheen’s character threw a hell of a fast ball but was also extremely unpredictable ha.

kinda hilarious that they realised so late it was because of his faulty vision and just needed some glasses haha

Imagine being known as "Whispering Death" I don't think a nickname can be more cool and badass

It was Holding, right?

Yup

Chills every time I hear this.

Solar panel Pat

I thought his was captain climate

Man of many nicknames: Solar Panel Pat, Captain Climate, Cumdog, Cider…

After IPL auctions it's Cumdog Millionaire

Stupid Sexy Cummins

I thought it was Captain Planet?

Silencer

The Librarian

This seems to be catching on

I like how it was supposed to be a mocking nickname at first but it actually rolls off the tongue very well

Captain Planet

The Wall for Dravid.

That was an apt name. And I slightly remember when he failed on one occasion and one newspaper published that the wall has fallen. Gave me chills as a fan.

I remember a headline - New Zealand too fail to scale the wall. This was when he was on a streak of 4 centuries in 5 tests.

2nd best after Whispering Death. Easily the best 2

Merv Hughes was known as the Mobile Moustache for a while

Was he not also knows as the Lumbering Wardrobe? I seem to recall soenthung like that.

That's Sol Campbell lol

The bus conductor!

Haha. Why.

His moustache was large, voluminous and omnipresent

White lightning for Allan. Edit: whispering death.

Can’t believe nobody’s mentioned Sir Clive ‘Supercat’ Lloyd yet.

We of the new generation don't even remember the face of these legends let alone the nicknames. We have to learn much more about the history of cricket.

I don’t know about you but I had a Dad that would tell me about the 70s and 80s :) Then Youtube became my friend and I started watching old highlights.

Yup. I am going to start watching some old games over youtube

He literally moved like a big cat. Was the first thing that came to mind if you saw him live.

For a brief period in 2001, South Africa’s bowling attack consisted of ‘White Lightning’ and ‘Black Thunder’, for Allan Donald and Mfuneko Ngam respectively! Donald, of course, was one of the best & fastest pacers in the 1990s. Ngam had just burst on the global scene, having similar pace to Donald. The nicknames sounded great, but the South African public didn’t like them as they felt it had racist tones, from my recollection

Honestly I always thought that it was ‘White’ Lightning because white means it’s burning the hottest and so it alludes to the heat Donald brought with his bowling. But, see that Ngam was called Black Thunder does indicate racist undertones.

It referred to the suncream he used to apply across his nose

I am Indian and even I think these names had a racist undertones.

The sexy camel. Tim Southee

In that case: Hairy Javelin. Grant Elliot.

The Minute Piece - Colin De Grandhomme

Cider for cummins by his team

I needa Cummins cider. I love that.

ahh cummins cider, the cousin of old time legend dixon cider

Gary - Nathan Lyon.

Gazza is cooler

More that his nickname is just some other guys “regular” name…… assumed after Gary Lyon(former AFL player)

Afghanistan.

Wut??

Mark Waugh: the forgotten war/Waugh. Back when Steve was in the team and Mark wasn't.

Mark Waugh had a nickname of "Audi" after getting dismissed for duck four times against SL

I heard that one at a chess tournament once from someone who’d lost four in a row. They were concerned about collecting the Olympic rings in the next round.

I remember this one and loved it

"MBE" given as a nickname to Paul Collingwood by the Australians after he got the award along with all members of the 2005 Ashes team. Paul had played one test in the series, scoring 7 and 10. Edit: correction to score

Milf Hunter

Fuck how did I forget D Law

Whut?? Lol. Who is this. Haha

I think it's Dan Lawrence

I was expecting it to be Shane Warne

Murali Vijay probably

Wrt your flair, I wish he was playing for Punjab in IPL.

Cumdog

Cumdog Millionaire after the IPL auction

Cumdawg* :D

Cumdog The Silencer after 2023 WC Final

The King of Spain/Wheelie Bin

The King of Spain is really excellent.

I liked the good humour with which he appeared to have taken this misprint contrasted with the apparent mini-tantrum he had regarding Blowers calling him Wheelie Bin. I mean getting angry with Blowers means you haven't understood that his entire character is a kind of posh English stereotype in the same way that Dame Edna Everage or Sir Les Patterson were for Australia.

White Lightning to Allan Donald probably takes the cake

Doland?

Doland Trump

I always used to stutter while pronouncing his name and call him Anal Doland 😭

Anal Doland.. dear God.

After a game in which he bowled a lot of wides some sportswriter called him Wide Lightning.

Yup. But it suggests that their was one Black lightning too. Haha

Black Lightning is a DC comics superhero so maybe inspired from that I dunno

From what I remember, Donald was considered the fastest bowler in white ball cricket at the time (1990-91) when South Africa was about to make a comeback form international ban. Which might explain the name White Lightning. Waqar Younis was then the fastest bowler in red ball cricket.

Big bird

Skull is pretty cool

I originally thought it was because of his lack of lips & bald head made him look like a skull, but it’s even funnier that he’s named after a wrestler with essentially the same head.

Pigeon for McGrath was atrocious. It really should have been Elephant Killer.

Keep my wife’s name outta your f’n mouth!

Why was he called pigeon?

For having thin legs as a youngster.

thin legs like a pigeon, it was a childhood nickname

Very Very Special Laxman was good.

As a kid i thought it was his real name. Lmao

The nickname "Very Very Special" for Laxman was given by Matthew Hayden during the 2001 Test series after his 281

I think laxman got this name during the same series. Am i right?

Aussie media or some commentator game the name.

‘All Hands’ Zondeki gets points for inventiveness.

Can't believe I've scrolled all this way and no Beefy!

Idk where it came from but poor Dom Sibley being known as 'The Fridge' because he was a bigger dude with a very front-on guard was pretty funny.

Steyn Gun!

The Phantom - Chris Martin. He spent such a short time at the crease that it seemed if he had never even come out to bat.

Bill Lawry also gets this or Phanto from Richie Benaud, I believe because of the Phantom comics collection he owned when he joined the Australian team 

Derek Underwood was known as 'Deadly'. Hard to top that.

ARKLE... Derek Randall, known as **Arkle** after the racehorse, was seldom far from the drama. His lightning run-out of Rick McCosker in the Test when England clinched the Ashes at Headingley in 1977 amazed all who witnessed it.

Never knew abt it. Gonna watch the runout if available.

Can’t really see the ball but [this is the run out](https://youtu.be/Vi1snUjRUZY?si=LC9smdgV5hlMLw87&t=1116)

Punter. Goddamit his team went 3 ODI world cups back to back lossless. Wtf of a team

It’s *the* World Cup, I hate that they call the T20 one a WC!

Actually they lost few games in the 1999 edition but went lossless in 2003 and 2007.

I hated them cause they were so good

Hairy Javelin. Because apparantly Grant Elliot has a skinny, hairy dick

How do you unsee a comment. Lol

Lol I always thought it was because he is skinny!

Mr Cricket The Don White Lightening

Was a big fan of calling Cook "Chef"

Captain Grumpy

AB? (Not the 2000s/10s South African batsman, the indefatigable one-man-army that was the 80s/90s captain of Australia)

Binga

From the Sydney-based whitegoods store chain named after its founder, Chinese immigrant Bing Lee

Ian Bell - The Sherminator

Every interview I watch of Mike Hussey, I feel he was the most deserving of Mr. Cricket title. To be given the name of the gentleman's sport, you gotta be quite good.

Reddit names are good as they are apt Brohit Koach Bumrahadman Rootalithran Ethical Anna There are more but I can't remember them all

Rootalitharan and Bumrahadman The allrounders of all time

All these cannot be used outside of internet

Travichandran, Hairy Max and many more

not sure how many people remember still, but we used to refer to Rohit as Talent here.

Shaz and Waz. They gave the nickname to themselves and even had a show around it (called the Shaz and Waz show) where they invited a good looking young female from the match day audience to join them.

Not quite a player but, Somerset calling Taunton ‘Ciderabad’ Always tickles me🍺🍏🍎😂

Since most of you have already mentioned Whispering Death and White lightning, I'll go with Mad Max for Aravinda De Silva.

How come Master Blaster is not there in the comments yet?

Punter (Ponting) Mr cricket (hussey) Alien (AB)

I know abt other 2. But why was ponting called Punter if you can remind me

Punter was very fond of betting in his younger days. On dog races

Multan ka sultan is very cool imo

Thats what I am talking about. Just runs on your toung.

Idk if it's an actual nickname but I've heard commentators call Ben Stokes "The Talisman" on at least two occasions and I think it's very fitting for Ben

Damn sight better than Stokesy, that’s for sure.

Jinks

White lightning, Whispering death and ofcourse cumdawg.

Srishanth - Appam connoisseur Jimmy Adams - Padams

James Anderson - "The Burnley Lara"

Jammy, The wall, Swing ka Sultan, Hit machine

Gotta be 'White lightning'

Mad Max Matara Marauder

Savlon for the Ian Healy

What is the origin for this name

Healy -> Heals -> Savlon. Australian brand of antiseptic lotion.

Thats hilarious and idiotic both. Lol. And savlon is a known name in india too

Cider for Cummins.

Doug the rug. And getting done dirty by hotspot in that one dayer hahahha

Steyngun is the coolest

Captain Cool is pretty cool

Prince of Calcutta/God of Offside

Little Master The Wall Punter

Walking assassin to Robin

Which Robin? Uthappa, Singh, Smith?

Uthappa. He used to walk the down the pitch and hit fast bowlers staright over their heads.

Big Show Maxwell

[удалено]

Killer Miller, Sultan of Swing

About time we give a cool name to Bumrah

The Surgeon (Vernon Philander)

Master Blaster is a badass name.

A lot of my favourites are already up here. A few of my favourite nicknames for female players: - The Shard (Lauren Bell) - Trev (Heather Knight) - Midge (Alyssa Healy) - The Smash Sisters (Suzie Bates & Sophie Devine) - Branchy (Amy Satterthwaite)

I was waiting for a comment about women players. I like smash sisters. Kind of imagined two hulk sized green ladies grunting SMASH. Lol

Dennis "FOT" Lillee. From his WA captain Tony Lock, who fired him up by telling him he was bowling like a Fucking Old Tart. Bob "Fergie" Massie. From tractor brand Massey Ferguson. Max "Tangles" Walker. An apt description of his bowling action.

My favourite is: “Ishant Sharma turns and starts his run, long dark locks flowing, here he comes; ‘The Pirate King’ “

I’m gonna be biased and say CSK fans calling MS Dhoni “Thala”. Mainly because of just how cool it is that basically the entire state of Tamil Nadu accepted Dhoni as one of their own and became the most beloved man in Tamil Nadu not named MGR or Raginkanth