cricket with balls

There is something about Brett Lee that people like.

It can’t be just that he is a nice guy, it was happening well before Freddie gave him a cuddle and even just being able to bowl really fast is not enough.

The man is simply loved by a huge number of cricket fans, and hated by surprisingly few.

Lee first arrived in cricket and almost immediately started in a space race with Shoaib Ahktar.  Who will break 100 miles and become the fastest bowler ever.

Lee was the American entry.  He had the team behind, was well prepared, looked like he was picked out of a catalogue and was earnest to the point of self-exhaustion.  Shoaib was definitely the Russian entry.  Madly disorganized, slightly insane, drenched in self-belief and despite all his problems he had the talent to get there.

No matter what madness either of these players has been through, public break ups, underwear label and Hindi song for Lee, and practically every other kind of public madness for Shoaib, people still stayed with them because they could bowl really bloody fast.

In 2003 in South Africa they went head to head on the speed guns.  Which is two places both men like to be.

Now it appears that both of their careers might just be fading away at the same time.

Lee pulling out before another series is surely the end of his international career.  Cricket Australia loves him, Ricky Ponting loves him and the Australian selectors love him, but there are now fit bowlers in form in Australian cricket.  Leaving Harris and Bollinger out of the World T20 for Lee was always going to be a risk, but his form in the IPL, especially compared to Bollinger’s form, should have made the selectors worried that they made a mistake.

Now his body has failed him, again.  I can’t see how he can ever come back.  Australia’s fast bowling stocks are probably the envy of International cricket; Victoria’s line up alone could represent a few International teams.

So perhaps once and for all the Buzz Aldrin of modern cricket will have to be let go.  The man loves representing his country, so he may never retire.  I think the selectors just need to say that the future is here and that they have no more time or money to spend on the space race.

Lee is well loved, has an IPL contract and will be fine. He just won’t be an international player again. Most of us live fine knowing we won’t play international cricket again (or for the first time).

In my vision of the future I see some clever devious TV executive would see Lee’s injury as a good thing and offer him and Shoaib a TV show.  They could travel the world training kids on fast bowling while digging at each other about speed gun read outs, which had the more potent Yorker, who hit more batsmen.  It would be a reality TV odd couple type show, but with cricket, travel, girls and guitars.  It practically writes itself.

They’d then make films, live performances and podcasts too.  Oh, and t-shirts.

The show would be called Beamers, Bouncers & Bollocks.

Andrew Flintoff just gave an interview to BBC Radio, in which he admitted that he was planning for the possibility that he might not be able to come back from his current knee problem.

This is, quite possibly, the most interesting thing that Flintoff has ever said in an interview – certainly in an interview given whilst sober. Previously, he’s always been hugely bullish about his prospects of coming back from any operation. It seems that the op he had the day after the Oval Test failing and having to have a second, more major, one has knocked his confidence, even in himself.

It is also clear that either he doesn’t contemplate coming back as a batsman only, or that the knee is so bad that, if it can’t be fixed, it is pretty well going to prevent him doing anything.

The next interesting thing that he said was that whatever he does, it won’t be commentary. Which is good news for everyone as (a) his time as England captain revealed that he wasn’t one of the game’s greatest thinkers or tacticians and (b) we won’t have to listen to his dull northern monotone clogging up our airwaves.

32 is hellishly early to have to end your career, though – especially in this day and age. Strange to think, too, that both he and Brett Lee, the couple who provided one of crickets iconic moments of the last decade, could be going out of the game together, too.

If I was a fast bowler I’d like to think I’d be like Shaun Tait or Shoaib Ahktar, erratic, a little lazy, far from stable, and only good on certain days.

Brett Lee chose a different path. He chose to try really hard, be consistent and stay humble.

There are few other proper quick bowlers who could ever be called earnest in the way Brett can. The man was fast, neat, sweaty desperation.

I can’t say Lee was ever one of my favourite cricketers, I can’t say he was an all time great of the game, but I can say the boy put in.

He put in so much he ended up arguing with Ponting, bowling beamers and breaking his body.

Perhaps I wanted him to bowl different at times, perhaps I thought he had a great ride from the selectors, but I could never doubt his desperation.

You could see his body straining for extra effort, you could see it with his batting, you could see it occasionally with the scary neck veins he had.

It wouldn’t be fair to call him a great of the game, but he could certainly play.

Most of my favourite moments from his career are from the 05 Ashes. His bowling wasn’t quite good enough, but the guy would just keep trying. His batting was almost the difference at times. It was the fact his bowling wasn’t great that made him stand out more. England kept after him, and he wouldn’t sit down. When his bowling couldn’t give him happiness, he fought like a bastard dog with the bat.

Then there was that photo.

You have all seen it, him and Freddie.

To me that photo is Brett Lee. The man wanted to be the best for his country, but in the end had to settle with just being pretty good. Few photos could explain a sport better than that one does for cricket.

If Lee gave us nothing more than that photo, he gave us enough. And he did give us more.

Thanks for the sweat.

True story.

He was found drenched in blood underneath a pile of 2784 news articles about the end of his career/life.

Other than some paper cuts, and a sore elbow from trying to fight his way out, he is ok. He may even be fit enough to bowl again just after Christmas, if he doesn’t die again before then.

Life has been tough for Lee under all these news items. At times he even had Dizzy Gillespie and Mark Taylor sitting on the pile.

Lee is resilient, and even though his elbow is not working, he realises that it can come good, and that he might not be finished with yet.

He was also lucky that he hadn’t read any of the articles on him (they were all facing up), as that would have scarred him for life.

But he has a pulse, still bowled faster Walt Flanagan’s dog in India, and is not at the age he needs to be put down.

If he was 33 and was bowling at Stuart Clark’s pace I’d agree, fuck, I’d get the shovel, but he is 33, in an injury phase, but no need to bury him yet.

There is no guarantee he will ever get picked again, but that doesn’t mean he has to call the cooper to give his measurements just yet.

Ofcourse even if Lee was dead that wouldn’t stop him trying.

He is that sort of dude.

If he were dead he would probably try harder. And his ghost would be forever moving the bowler’s marker at the SCG.

You could say that NSWales won the latest Lalit soiree.

I say Brett Lee did.

That way I have to give NSWales no credit.

Well played, Brett.