Michael Holding will go down in history as one of the deadliest fast bowlers of all time. Yes, the legacy he leaves is hard to be matched for sheer ferocity. The nickname whispering death was there for a reason. He hardly made a sound as he came into bowl and when the missile was launched from his hand, it had a tendency to destroy everything in its path, be it the stumps or the player.
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One over he bowled to Brian Close when West Indies were touring England in 1976 can be called lethal in many ways. The fact that Close was still standing at the end was a testimony to his courage. Body blows on chest and the head left him dazed and the umpire had to step in to caution him. Take a look, it will send a chill down your spine:
The back story is that Tony Greig had said West Indies would grovel in front of England. Given the fact that apartheid was rampant in South Africa which was his land of birth, those comments did not go down well with a team which had players of African descent. So when they faced off, the intensity from the West Indians was much more and this over was one such example. To be honest, let’s just be glad that none of us were out there facing him and that too without a helmet and hardly any protection on the body.