Lee increased the record to 98.4mph

And no fast bowler's career would be completed without injury trouble - Shoaib has suffered groin trouble and stomach problems while Lee struggled to return from elbow surgery last year.

But right now both are bowling at their best, and a spectacular youngster is making his presence felt.

Shoaib took 10 wickets in the recent Test series against West Indies in Sharjah - his favourite hunting ground.

Breathing down his neck is team-mate Muhammed Sami, who took his second international hat-trick this month against Sri Lanka on Friday.

And Lee struck the latest blow in the pace race on the same day when he was recorded at 98.4 mph - the fastest ever recorded since the advent of the on-pitch speed gun.

Shoaib's fastest delivery was recorded in a match against Lee, when he was clocked at 98.2 mph in a one-day international in Cardiff last June.

On his return from injury, Lee fought fire with fire, but suffered as a result. He took one wicket but conceded 85 runs - a record as the most expensive ten overs by an Australian bowler in one-day internationals.

Before technology

As the success of older, wiser - and slower - bowlers like Glenn McGrath and Shaun Pollock shows, there is much more to being a successful bowler than simply out-gunning a batsman.

But, while crowds may not be able to understand movement off the pitch or variations in delivery, they will always be able to spot the read-out from the radar gun on the boundary edge.

Typhoon Tyson was never clocked on the field

Both Lee and Shoaib have expressed their wish to pass the magic 100mph mark.

But they will first have to pass the record 99.8 mph, set by Thompson in a wind tunnel in 1976.

And they will have to do enough to convince the older generation that the heroes of the past - the men who bowled before technology was available - were not faster than the current crop.

Perhaps the first example of bowlers' speeds being measured was in Wellington, New Zealand, in 1955, when English opening pair Frank Tyson and Brian Statham were clocked at just under 90mph.

"A metal plate was attached to a ball, which was then bowled through a sonic beam," Tyson said.

"It produced a whistle, which was measured and then the speed was worked out according to the distance covered and the length of the whistle."

But the similarity between the tests and real bowling conditions was far further from that enjoyed by Lee and Shoaib.

"We bowled in two or three sweaters," recalled Tyson, "and I cannot vouch for the length of our run-ups."