Is there any bowler with a minimum of 5000 delivieries in international cricket who has never bowled a wide or no-ball in their entire career?
1 Answer
When you search for this question the answer you will likely to get is Michael Holding bowling 5473 (900 overs) without a single wide and no-ball, and also Joel Garner who bowled 5330 deliveries without a wide (or a no-ball) in ODI.
From ESPN Cricinfo article:
Derek Underwood (21,862 balls in 86 Tests) and Garry Sobers (21,599 in 93) never bowled a wide or a no-ball. (It's just possible that some of these players delivered no-balls which were scored from, which would not have counted against them at the time so might have escaped notice; the practice of debiting no-balls and wides against the bowlers' analyses started in the early 1980s.)
But one week later another article from cricinfo clarifies that Michael Holding and Joel Garner do have bowled a no-ball and wide ball. But also states:
Charles Davis, the Melbourne statistician, believes the leader in Test matches is probably the Australian legspinner Clarrie Grimmett (14,513 deliveries in 37 Tests), who never bowled a no-ball or a wide.
So neglecting Michael Holding and Joel Garner other three may have bowled without no-ball and wide.