Fast bowler inducted into Australian Cricket Hall of Fame
Brett Lee’s first ball to a Test cricketer swung outwards – at a reasonable pace, of course – and had it not been for the SCG nets, he might have finished in the hole.
Lee came to prominence in Australian cricket circles when he first fielded a ball in 1999, nearly six years before the most talked about Boxing Day Test, when he demolished India with 5-47 and a wicket in their first win.
Brett Lee celebrates his first Test wicket (Indian opener Sadagoppan Ramesh) at the MCG.Credit: Will Burgess
Lee is the latest inductee into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame; Nearly 32 years after accepting an invitation to bowl to today’s greats Allan Border, Steve Waugh and David Boon in preparation for the traveling World Series carnival of 50-over cricket.
At 16, short and still thin, Lee might bear a passing resemblance to the champion greyhound that would one day be named after him. After all, he still “had to run under the shower to get wet.”
His mother, Helen, dropped him off outside the SCG after driving to Mt Ousley in the Mitsubishi Sigma that had transported brothers Shane, Brett and Grant from Oak Flats to various suburban locations.
Craig McDermott, Australia’s fastest bowler at the time, signaled his run with raised eyebrows, given that he had walked 15 meters short of the target he had set. His first ball caused laughter as it headed straight for the offside goal, but there was little more than a growl from Boon at the other end.
“The second ball, the brand new white ball, swings right across the net,” laughs Lee.
“The guys start laughing. Boony didn’t say much, he just picked up the ball and threw it back.
“I’m on target again, full of nerves, all over the shop. And I’m thinking: ‘Stuff that. Run, throw the fastball. Back off.’
“Third ball, a perfect yorker, he nails Boony. I have a huge grin on my face and poor old Boony is stitched up with the worst training you can imagine.”
Lee joins the group of Australian greats in the Hall of Fame. More than 700 international wickets, Test and World Cup victories and a career that spanned more than a decade. His status as one of the game’s unfailing, unfailingly good guys is a true badge of honour.
“I loved winning, I loved taking wickets and I loved the teams I played for,” says Lee.
“But my biggest personal achievement in cricket was fast bowling. Breaking the 100 mph barrier, that’s what I’m most proud of.”
Brett Lee jumping for joy: A familiar sight from the 2000s.Credit: access point
‘Direct injection of adrenaline’: what it takes to bowl really fast
Lee is one of only five bowlers to have cracked the legendary 160 kmph mark (at least in front of the fast gun).
He swears he told his parents he was going to do this when he was nine years old, wearing the baggy green.
Lee will be 50 next year and his body was taken into surgery He is a player who has bowled at a fast pace for 20-odd years.
Despite two broken backs, six ankle surgeries, and broken shoulders and elbows, Lee’s body survived quite well despite all the work he put into his art.
Brett and Shane Lee as teenagers at their childhood home at Mt Warrigal on the NSW South Coast.
“I saw all the videos of Jeff Thomson playing absolute rocket bowling in the 70s and 80s and I knew right away that fast bowling was what I wanted to do,” says Lee.
“I knew it would be the toughest job in the world and sacrifices would be made… I played my last Big Bash game when I was 39 and I was working on my bowling action until that last game. In my eyes, I’ve never been completely perfect but I’m a bit of a perfectionist.”
The fast-twitch fibers from his mother Helen’s sprinting background, the doggedness and determination of his father Bob and childhood sparring in the family’s backyard on the NSW South Coast make for a fair base of fast bowling.
Speed demon: Lee trained in NSW in 1999.Credit: Iain Gillespie
As one teenager saw a ball being chased down a random hill in Kiama, “my legs were moving at breakneck speed, faster than I’ve ever moved before. And I thought, there’s something here. How can I move as fast as possible and transfer that to bowling faster?”
Running on soft sand. Lean muscle and bodyweight exercises instead of mass. The grass sprints and all manner of exercises and training programs were devised by former Australian strength and conditioning coach Jock Campbell, who most memorably incorporated the parachute into Lee’s resistance training at the 2003 World Cup.
All of this came over more than a decade of Lee running 20-odd meters up to 120 times a day. He throws his body into the air, using his front foot to quickly launch the ball with roughly 16 times his body weight.
Brett Lee operates Jock Campbell’s parachute in South Africa.Credit: Getty Images
“You think about F1 and how they tune their cars – there are so many little things that have to be synchronized,” says Lee.
“That’s all the training and preparation. The wind, your footprints, shifting your forearm and wrist down; it’s all about timing and coordination.”
“But when everything goes right and the ball flies towards Gilly [long-time Test wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist]There is nothing like it. This is the best feeling in the world. It’s like a direct injection of adrenaline when you can bowl really fast.
Lee left no stone unturned to ensure his body was fit for fast bowling.Credit: Getty Images
‘Binga, I’ll kill you’: The big speed race
The closest we came to these for young and old was the early 2000s. pulp Fiction-esque injections of adrenaline were watching Lee and Pakistani contemporary Shoaib Akhtar push the boundaries of skin dodging.
Where Shane Warne pioneered spin bowling’s renaissance in the 1990s, Lee and Akhtar once again emerged as the rock stars of the game; with its mysterious forms evolving and weakening. But always at a fast pace.
Dennis Lillee predicted the arrival of an unnamed speedster in October 1999. Western Australiaand by December of that year the world knew it was Lee.
A dizzying spell at the WACA saw veteran pacer Jo Angel break his arm, allowing Lee to make his debut on Boxing Day. With Akhtar already clocking a speed of over 155 kmph, the duo answered questions about their bowling action. They constantly push each other towards the legendary 160 km/h speed limit (100 miles per hour).
Leaving aside the accuracy of fast weapons (Mitchell Starc’s own 160km/h measurement in 2015 The 2003 World Cup in South Africa is considered a turning point for the duo.
Shoaib Akhtar facing Brett Lee in 2002.Credit: Getty Images
Akhtar clocked 161.4 mph against England in Cape Town while Lee terrorized both New Zealand and Sri Lanka with his fast bowling displays, claiming 22 wickets for the tournament and regularly clocking 160 mph.
“I first saw Shoaib after he played for Mosman. We were sitting in the bar and I was watching on TV thinking ‘this guy is something else’,” says Lee.
“I loved every bit of racing up to the 160 barrier with him. It was exciting, I loved that he was also a showman and we were great friends off the field too. Even though he tried to kill me a few times.”
He appears right in the middle of their rapid-fire duels.
“I came out to bat in the one-day match against Pakistan at Docklands (in 2002) and from 70 meters away I could see Shoaib shouting with the ball in his hand,” Lee recalls.
Akhtar and Lee: Great rivals, great friends.Credit: Getty Images
“‘Binga. Binga. I’m going to kill you.’
“The first ball came flying with a yorker and hit my toe before I could move. I was happy to walk on, gave myself LBW, ‘that’s nice, thanks’ and walked on.
“But the referee didn’t take me out and called me back! We had some great fights and a lot of excitement in the media but I always loved Shoaib’s approach to the game.”
And when Lee’s fastest ball ever recorded came, it wasn’t on a high-voltage WACA deck, on South Africa’s Highveld or in front of a mighty MCG.
In Napier, New Zealand, in 2005, Australia won 5-0 at the end of the ODI series. Unsurprisingly, a minor media storm had already begun as figures on both sides of the Tasman debated whether the Kiwi batsmen were afraid of Lee’s devastating pace.
In his first encounter with the white ball, Lee stepped into gear and reached New Zealand opener Craig Cumming. His fifth ball hit the leg side at 160 kmph. The next pace was 161.1 kmph and wouldn’t you believe it, you had outpaced the batsman on pace.
“I remember the conditions of that day,” Lee says 20 years later.
“There was a gentle breeze over my shoulder, the sun was shining, it wasn’t a hot day. And most importantly, I remember the wrinkles popping.”
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“I could have lost 15km if I had slipped my front foot, so when I landed I wore these big long spikes to dig in – that’s where all the power comes from. Landing that day was perfect.
“I know the speeds of this because people showed me the vision and I used to joke that I always turn around to check the speeds. But that day, like every day, I tell myself to focus on my technique and it turns out I did something very special.”
“I look at it now and think about all the training and hours I put in. All the injuries, everything I put into my body, and I wouldn’t change that.
“I wouldn’t change any of it because I had to bowl as fast as I could.”
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