In a week, the two fastest bowlers on the planet will go head-to-head in a battle of epic proportions.

Not since the Australian summer of 1999/2000 have these purveyors of pace faced up to each other at full fitness, and right now both are fit and bowling faster than ever before.

In their first clash, Brett Lee took the honours and came away the victor. At the time, Lee was the raw rookie trying to knock the world champion off his perch, while Shoaib Akhtar had proved himself the fastest man alive.

Lee's sharpest delivery of that summer came in at 154.8kph - just pipping Shoaib's 154.7kph, and Lee walked away as the new world champion of speed.

Over the following two and a half years, the pair have swapped the title between themselves as they have notched faster, and still faster, speeds. But that 154.8kph from Lee has remained the fastest-recorded delivery by IDS Sports on Australian soil.

In the 1998/99 season, Darren Gough was fastest on the IDS guns when he eclipsed the 150kph mark in Sydney, but only just.

In the seasons to follow Lee has been fastest, recording 154.8kph in his rookie year, 150.0kph in Perth 2000/1 and 154.6kph in the most recent summer.

Brett Lee left Australian shores and in March of this year bowled the two fastest balls of modern times at 157.4 and 157.3kph on the EDH guns in South Africa. The same guns captured Shoaib bettering these speeds just a few weeks later in Pakistan when he registered 159.5kph. Throughout the month of April, Shoaib was constantly in the mid-to-high 150s(kph) and surpassed Lee's best on numerous occasions, EDH clocking him as high as 159.9kph.

On April 277, Shoaib bowled his fastest spell which included the 100 miles- per-hour ball registering 161.0kph and 160.0kph with consecutive balls. These speeds were confirmed by two separate high-quality Stalker radar guns trained on each ball, whilst the EDH guns were temporarily inoperative.

Once again Shoaib comes to Australia as the world's fastest bowler and Lee is the challenger eager to take the title.

Never before has the gulf separating these two bastions of speed been anywhere near the 3.6kph which exists today. But with their competitive juices flowing and bragging rights up for grabs, it should be a thrilling encounter. Even if they don't come close to the 100-mph mark, we should at least see a new 'fastest ball' in Australia on the IDS guns.

On the under-card is the possibility of this year's third fastest bowler Jason Gillespie (153.9kph), jostling for position with emerging star Mohammed Sami, who this year is ranked sixth with his 149.7kph. Both bowlers have recorded their fastest balls in their most recent international outings and both men are on the rise in what has been dubbed "the pace race".

© CricInfo