Australians, please answer me this...

[Vladimir]

I will ask the Aussies sitting next to me at the Kiwi Lodge in Cebu City

You've returned? Do tell.

[Pannonian]

My introduction to cricket was the West Indies versus England, so violence was always a legitimate and expected part of cricket.

Here's an earlier example of fast bowling. Note that in cricket if the batsman's hit, the batsman can either continue through the mounting bruises and/or broken bones, or he can retire through injury and leave his team short. The fielding team is not penalised in any way for hitting the batsman.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8tFgtzeA2M

Here's an even earlier example. Bert Oldfield staggers away after being hit on the temple, and afterwards blames only himself for missing the ball with his bat. After Harold Larwood had hit the Australian captain Bill Woodfull on the heart, the England captain Douglas Jardine pointedly called out "Well bowled Harold". Towards the end of the Test series, Don Bradman experimented by retreating further and further away from the stumps, and found Larwood following him with the ball, with the obvious intent of aiming at the batsman and not the wicket. Larwood eventually scored a hit on the famously slippery Bradman.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwL1VOBG6Vo

[Idaho]

The best example of aggressive bowling was this west Indian pace attack against England. The series was against a backdrop of racial tension in London, and an apartheid era England captain who said he was going to make them "grovel". This was "whispering death" Holding's reply https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-f5...e_gdata_player

[Pannonian]

Nowadays he's regarded as a joke by both English and Australians alike. However, once upon a time the Australian fast bowler Mitchell Johnson was seen as one of the most fearsome in world cricket. Here he is, sending three South Africans to the pavilion and two to the hospital.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9hcZWVb7PI

[Idaho]

Nowadays he's regarded as a joke by both English and Australians alike. However, once upon a time the Australian fast bowler Mitchell Johnson was seen as one of the most fearsome in world cricket. Here he is, sending three South Africans to the pavilion and two to the hospital.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9hcZWVb7PI

"He bowls it to the left,
He bowls it to the right,
That Mitchell Johnson,
He bowls a lot of s****"