Did he? Didn't he?

The Speed Gun at the Newlands recorded Shoaib Akhtar as having bowled the fastest ball ever hurled across 22 yards of a cricket pitch in the Pakistan-England match Saturday afternoon. 161.3 kilometres per hour of blistering pace. Or just over 100 mph.

Faster than Jeff Thomson, who is here doing commentary. Faster than his closest competitor Brett Lee. Faster than any human being in the history of the game. 

The moment the Speed Gun showed the reading during Akhtar's second over, ‘The Rawalpindi Express", one of contemporary cricket's most charismatic characters, lost no time in making all the appropriate signs to the spectators and the dressing room.

Akhtar recorded the speed in his second over.

The Pakistan party's media minders -- official and unofficial -- too were quick to spread the word about how an Asian had achieved the 100-mile mark that had eluded the whites.  And that he had chosen the biggest cricket stage in the world to do so.

But the issue is still far from settled. The International Cricket Council has not yet released a formal statement on Akhtar's feat, and the ICC chief Malcolm Gray told rediff.com that it was far from clear if the milestone had been reached.

Reason: A delivery of Wasim Akram's next over, too, showed a 161.3 kmph reading.

In the end, the honour may still go to Akhtar, but the dispute over the veracity of the Speed Gun readings will continue to rage.

Australian wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist has said that he has often been surprised at some of the speeds recorded by the machine as he received Brett Lee's deliveries in his gloves.