Somebody once asked Viv Richards which West Indian fast bowler he played with was the best.
Consider the shortlist. Michael Holding. Joel Garner. Andy Roberts. Colin Croft. Curtly Ambrose. Courtney Walsh.
He said Malcolm Marshall.
And the numbers agree with him in a way that is almost rude to the others. In the Tests Marshall played, he took almost a third of all the wickets that fell. Not a third of the West Indian wickets. A third of the match, while sharing a new ball with men who would have led any other attack in history.
He finished with 376 at 20.94, still the best average anybody with 300 Test wickets has ever managed.
But the thing that made him complete was never the volume. Only 17.55% of his victims were the bottom three in the order, the lowest of any great fast bowler. Wasim Akram's figure is close to 28%. Marshall did not build a record on tail-enders. He built it on the men paid to survive him.
And then Asia, where the quicks of his generation went to be humbled or simply refused to go. Lillee never toured India once. Marshall went repeatedly and took 71 wickets in 19 Tests at 23.05, and after his rookie tour, 20.17.
Now the freakish part is that none of it should have worked. He was short for a fast bowler. His action was open-chested, the exact thing every coaching manual warns against. The pace came out of his shoulder, and the bouncer skidded at your throat instead of climbing over it.
The most complete fast bowler there has ever been. Viv thinks so too.