Top 10 tallest cricketers of all-time

Cricket is one of those sports that demands a lot of mental strength and skill. As a player, it is always about being one step ahead of the opponent and utilising the conditions well. While the height of a player might not make a huge difference to the performances, being tall has its own set of added advantages. Historically, some of the tallest players the sport has ever witnessed have been bowlers. Understandably so, tall bowlers extract a good deal of extra bounce because of the point from where they release the ball and thus trouble the batsmen. To make things interesting, we’ve compiled a list of the tallest cricketers of all-time who played at the highest level and all of them are bowlers. Two of the tallest batsmen who played international cricket are Peter Fulton of New Zealand (199 cm) and Tony Greig of England (198 cm). Here is the list of top-10 tallest cricketers of all-time: 10. Jason Holder | 6’7″ (201 cm) Jason Holder. (Photo Source: Twitter) The current Windies Test and ODI skipper, Jason Holder is also a very tall cricketer. Born in Barbados, Holder has established himself as one of the most important members of the Windies team at a very young age. Thus far, he has featured in 37 Tests and 98 ODIs for his team and has picked up 93 and 125 wickets in these two formats respectively. Holder is a fast learner and is constantly looking to improve his game. Like Moody, he isn’t one of the fastest bowlers around but extracts a good amount of bounce off the deck. Moreover, he is extremely disciplined with his lines and lengths that has contributed to his success. Jason Holder is a very handy batsman down the order and has got great temperament. His long levers help him strike a few lusty blows as well. 9. Sulieman Benn | 6’7″ (201 cm) Suliemann Benn. (Photo Source: Twitter) Built like a fierce tall fast bowler, Sulieman Benn is an extremely aggressive character. The left-arm spinner is no stranger to controversies and has seen several of those throughout his career. He was once set off the field by Chris Gayle after Benn refused to comply with his orders. The most controversial of all the incidents came when Dale Steyn spat at the tall spinner after he continuously had a go at the South African. Benn’s disciplinary issues saw him being left out of the 2011 World Cup squad but he made it into the final cut for the 2015 edition of the tournament. If not his attitude, Benn could have been one of the most important players in the Windies team. His tall frame helps him get the drift and the delivery comes out of his hand at an awkward angle for the batsmen as he bowls with a round-arm action. He has got 144 international wickets across all the three formats. 8. Kyle Jamieson | 6’8″ (203 cm) Kyle Jamieson. (Photo Source: Twitter) New Zealand’s new recruit Kyle Jamieson hogged the limelight first for his height. The 6’8″ tall pacer is one of the tallest in world cricket at the moment. On the back of some brilliant domestic performances, Jamieson earned a maiden call-up to the ODI team for the India series at home in January 2020. On his debut, he won the Man of the Match for his all-round performance which helped the BlackCaps win the game. However, there is still a long way to go for him and the 25-year-old will be keen to make the most of the chances he gets to represent his country. For now, he is with the New Zealand Test squad for the series against India and if given a chance to make his debut in the longest format, Jamieson would love to win the Man of the Match award just like he did in the ODIs. 7. Marco Jansen | 6'8'' (203 cm) Marco Jansen. (Photo Source: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images) Marco Jansen has been proven performer for South Africa in the longest format of the game. He has extracted bounce from even the docile surfaces and wreaked havoc with the ball. Besides his bowling might, the ace pacer is no muck with the bat and played crucial knocks slotting in at lower down the order. Jansen has featured in 10 Tests and bagged 41 wickets at an average of 21.65. On the batting front, he has scored 277 runs at an average of 19.78. The 22-year-old has fared well in the ODIs too, picking up five wickets in as many games at an economy of 6.06 and scoring 60 runs at a strike rate of 93.75. Courtesy of his stellar performances, Jansen has become a integral part of the South African pace attack. Moroever, the inclusion of the left-arm pacer has added variety to the bowling unit. The team management would hope the youngster keeps delivering the goods in the years to come. 6. Bruce Reid | 6’8″ (203 cm) Bruce Reid. (Photo by Patrick Eagar/Popperfoto via Getty Images/Getty Images) Bruce Reid, a left-arm fast bowler from Australia, could have been a great asset to the Australian team in the ’80s. Hailing from Perth, he used to swing the ball on a consistent basis. Moreover, given that he was quite tall, he could extract great bounce as well. He is the first Australian bowler to pick a hat-trick in ODIs and was a terrific bowler. However, Australia would still rue the fact that his career was plagued by several injuries when the team was undergoing turbulent times. At just 29 years of age, Bruce Reid had to announce his retirement as his body completely gave up on him. Later, he worked as the bowling coach of the Indian team and had stints with Zimbabwe and Hampshire as the coach. In a seven-year-long career, he only could play 27 Tests and 61 ODI which is massively frustrating for any sportsman. 5. Peter George | 6’8″ (203 cm) Peter George. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images) Peter George is another player from Australia featuring on this list. Likened to Glenn McGrath because of his action and height, George had all the ingredients to become a great fast bowler. However, his first Test that he played in India at Bengaluru turned out to be his last and he didn’t get to play for the team again thus far. George is a lanky bowler who bowls at a great velocity and often leaves the batsmen clueless with the bounce that he extracts. He cleaned up the great Sachin Tendulkar in the only international game that he played when the maestro was batting on 32. Peter George now plays for South Australia and is 32-years-old. He still seems to have a few years left in him and might even fancy a comeback. 4. Joel Garner | 6’8″ (203 cm) Joel Garner. (Photo Source: Twitter) Known as the Big Bird, Joel Garner was another fast-bowling sensation produced in the factory of fast bowlers in the Caribbean islands in the ’70s and the ’80s. The Barbados pacer was easily amongst the most feared players during his cricketing days and the batsmen were often left clueless due to his pace. While you might talk about several bowlers who bowl great yorkers in modern-times, Garner mastered this art back in those days itself. His yorkers hit exactly the base of the stumps and would have reached the wickets even before the batsmen could get their bat down to fend at them. This, when combined with the bounce that he used to extract bowling from over 7 feet height, was an absolute nightmare for the batsmen. Back in those days, Garner was literally unplayable at the death overs. In 58 Tests, he picked up 259 wickets and accumulated 146 scalps in 98 ODIs. 3. Cameron Cuffy | 6’8″ (203 cm) Cameron Cuffy. (Photo credit should read TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images) Cameron Cuffy looked promising to take the legacy of the Windies fast bowling forward but it ended up being unfulfilled by the time he finished. Cuffy used to extract some unimaginable bounce even from the length deliveries and on tracks where he didn’t have too much of an assistance. But, competing with the likes of Walsh, Ambrose and Benjamin wasn’t easy. Thus, he struggled for his place in the team and wasn’t a regular feature in the playing eleven. Later, several injuries came his way and inconsistency put breaks on his career. Cuffy, once ranked 10th in the ICC ODI bowlers’ rankings, finished with 41 wickets in as many international games. In the 15 Tests that he played, he accounted for 43 wickets before announcing his retirement. 2. Boyd Rankin | 6’8″ (204 cm) Boyd Rankin. (Photo by Gareth Copley/Getty Images) Ireland fast bowler Boyd Rankin, standing at a height of 204 cm comes second on this list. He started off his career with rugby and his height, strength saw him make waves in the sport. But, with cricket being his first love, Rankin let go a potential career in rugby and evolved as one of the most important bowlers of the Irish team. His action is modelled on the likes of Glenn McGrath and Curtley Ambrose and is more of a hit-the-deck bowler. While it is common for him to extract a lot of bounce, it is the lateral movement that he finds that puts questions in the batsmen’s minds. Rankin also played Test cricket for England and is only the third player to have represented two countries in the longest format of the game. 1. Mohammad Irfan | 7’1″ (216 cm) Mohammad Irfan. (Photo by Ashley Allen &#8211; CPL T20/Getty Images) The tallest player to have ever played cricket, as most of you know, is Pakistan‘s Mohammad Irfan. The sight, or thought rather, of him running to the crease and delivering the ball from such a height is intimidating. Leave alone the bouncers and the short-balls, his normal length deliveries also rise up to the chest height for most of the batsmen. Known as the ‘Burj Khalifa’ of Pakistan, Irfan has played 4 Tests, 60 ODIs and 20 T20Is for his country. While he has done a decent job at the highest level, the injury-prone nature kept him out of the squad. Teams often prepare to face him by getting throwdowns from the specialists standing on a stool. With his run and slight jump, Mohammad Irfan’s hand manages to reach about 8 feet from where he delivers the ball.