Where have all the good men gone?

A post on Third Umpire about Malcolm Marshall has had me browsing the internet for some clips of the Barbadian. I grew up in the (19)80s and whoever England played, it seemed, brought at least one top class pace man. Marshall, Holding, Roberts, Garner, Croft, (Winston) Davies, (Sylvester) Clark, Paterson came from the West Indies, any one of which would walk into the current England team (and maybe even Australia). Then there was Dennis Lillee, Imran Khan, Richard Hadlee and Kapil Dev, four greats in their own right; not forgetting Willis and Botham from England.

What do we have now? Err, hang on, I know this one... Well, there is Brett Lee and there used to be Shane Bond. There is also Shoaib Akhtar who is definitely quick and has his moments but is nowhere near an all-time great. What has happened, why are there no quality quick bowlers anymore? International bowlers probably play less that they used to in the 1980s -- that is certainly true of English players, so it cannot be a workload problem. Whatever the reasons it is a great shame, the game needs the spectacle of a fearsome fast bowler thundering in.

In case you do not remember Marshall et al:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgfY2VNbv7s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJvVvYdAWLg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6RamWV-2LU
http://www.veoh.com/videos/v6401152FtEKJhW2