Dale Steyn is no doubt one of the greatest bowlers ever. However your second to last paragraph is pure speculation and dismissing McGrath as too slow is bewildering to say the least. We can agree that Dale Steyn is an absolutely fantastic bowler but frankly the rest of the article is errant nonsense.

It also should be mentioned that test batsmen do not seem to be as good in general as those who played 10-15 years ago.

McGrath averages under 27.5 against every team and only averages over 30 in one country, Pakistan.\

Steyn averages over 30 in UAE, SL and England.

He's obviously an all time great, but he's not as good as Marshall, or probably even McGrath.

Akram, Donald and Ambrose is the last 20 are also on a similar level. Ambrose is probably the best bowler in the last 25 years and akram had to bowl on a lot flatter pitches.

So difficult to say as he has been bowling in an era of very average Cricket teams.

as a pakistan fan i will be biased and say akram was just as good imo, also i think you do have to take other factors into account such as strentgh of batting line up the bowler has, for example mcgrath whist an amazing bowling was backed up by one of the greatest batting line ups around, very rarely were the bowlers of aus at that time having to bowl teams out for 150-200 because their batting failed

Mcgrath was on a different leageu. He played so many tests as well and odis. He was a dangerous bowler in all forms. That is what differentiates him with other players who only perform in one or the other form.

And as Duncan pointed, cricket's quality has dropped quite drastically. in the whole world there is only like 2-3 bowlers that average less than 25. Teams are struggling away from home. Those years you had quality batsman in pretty much every single team. Batsman that were on top form. Steyn is a great bowler, but cannot come on the league of those old players, as they did not have so many things that todays bowlers get( and yet they struggle to get wickets.)

Modern flat pitches is a complete myth. The time for the flat tracks was late 90s and early 00's and that's when the likes of Akram, McGrath, Ambrose, Donald, Waqar used to operate.

Steyn has been bought up on seaming SA tracks unlike the actual greats so his stats have been boosted. He will go down as one of the best no doubt about it and he does perform in none seaming conditions too but for me he is behind the likes of Akram, McGrath and Ambrose.

I do love watching him bowl.

Yh agreed kash. Those days teams used to pile 800s every other innings. Now a days u barely see that

He will go down as one of the best ever fast bowlers. He right up there with Allan Donald imo.

however Glen McGrath will always be the big dog which is no shame imo.

Steyn its fair to say is the best bowler in the world atm but McGrath is a legend, one of the greatest of all time

Courtney Walsh was also better than Dale Steyn

However your second to last paragraph is pure speculation and dismissing McGrath as too slow is bewildering to say the least. We can agree that Dale Steyn is an absolutely fantastic bowler but frankly the rest of the article is errant nonsense.
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McGrath was a good bowler but, to be honest, was very overrated.

This is largely due to his best performances coming vs England - leading to the UK media overhyping him. I've spoken to cricket fans from other countries & they don't rate McGrath all that highly.

The fact is, if you attacked McGrath, he had no answers - just look at how Vaughan dominated him every series they went head-to-head. He was simply too slow to turn the tide if a batsman started taking the game to him. He only operated at 77-82 mph, so you could score runs very easily with the hook & pull shots vs McGrath - even a green KP did it in 2005.

McGrath got his wickets through frustrating batsman into making mistakes, he couldn't 'rip' batsmen out the way Steyn, Akram & Co. could/can. He also always had scoreboard pressure to use, playing with Waugh, Gilchrist, Hayden etc.

Modern flat pitches is a complete myth. The time for the flat tracks was late 90s and early 00's and that's when the likes of Akram, McGrath, Ambrose, Donald, Waqar used to operate.
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That's not true. Pitches have become flatter.

A statistical analysis by CricInfo at the end of the last decade found that the batting average of a top order batsman had increased by 5 runs in 2000-09 from 1990-99.

Players like AB De Villers & Gautam Ghambir wouldn't have averaged 52 in the the 90s. The advent of T20 has made it harder for bowlers as well. The bowlers from before T20 could more easily exert pressure on batsmen.

Sinister if you look at cricketing homes like SA, England and NZ they have continued to provide bowler friendly wickets. Australia went away from this initially but have started to produce bowler friendly tracks.

India used to be very flat but now produce result wickets mainly for spinners while UAE has always been good for the seamers.

From my experience the late 90s and upto mid 00s we had some the flattest tracks imaginable. series Pak, India, SL were drawn tests with the odd win if you had the bowlers.

After the mid to late 00s we tend to see more result driven tracks and this is the time when Steyn came into prominence. He is my favourite bowler to watch especially when he is angry and sledging but the fact remains that he has been bought up in seamer friendly conditions while someone like Akram or Ambrose have had to play the majority of cricket on flat tracks.

AB is a class players but Gambhir had good stats because when he first came in India played Bangladesh a fair bit. Also if a batsman is to attack a bowler more it increases the bowlers chance of a wicket which is what happens now.

McGrath overrated

Steyn is a top quality bowler, but we need to keep in mind that he played 37/69 tests in SA and bagged 202/350 wickets in SA.

We all know SA pitches are the most lively and most pace friendly.

Look at Marshall's stats and you understand why many believe he is the greatest fast bowler of all time. He succeeded everywhere, even on the flattest pitches. He was deadly in England, but then he had tremendous success in India too. He never played against SL (weakest team then), BD and Zim.

Tbh you are talking complete balls.

How can McGrath be overrated when he bagged 563 wickets at 21.6? He has rightfully earned his rating.