Brett Lee was the fast-bowling spearhead of a great Australia team in the middle of the last decade. After his valiant role in the 2005 Ashes, he was selected as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year.
Brett Lee played his last Test in 2008 and retired with 310 wickets at 30.81. He also took 380 ODI wickets.
He started the summer branded a cynical assassin, allegedly terrifying rival fast bowlers with 90mph beamers. Towards the end of the year, Brett Lee was being pelted with fruit by baying yobs as he patrolled the boundary at Eden Park in Auckland.
In between, he was adopted by that most unlikely constituency, the Barmy Army, the same comedians who, during the 2002/03 Boxing Day Test at the MCG, had taunted his every delivery with calls of “No-ball!” after suspicions were raised about his action. By any standards, Lee – never easy to define as either a bowler or a personality – had a remarkable 2005. Above all, he had a remarkable Ashes. From his leaping delivery and health-threatening thunderbolts to the dazzling smile that rarely faded, from his intelligent slogging in the final-innings run-chase at Edgbaston to the stoicism he showed in taking his licks from England’s pace battery throughout, Lee left an enduring image of vivacious engagement.
A month later came the climax. Ricky Ponting threw Lee the ball at The Oval as England were hanging on for a series-winning draw. That he went wicketless in 20 overs will leave historians with the impression Lee’s part was minor. It was not. He showed ferocious commitment – “He was bowling at the speed of light,” Paul Collingwood recalled later – and he should have had the centurion Pietersen caught by Shane Warne at first slip for 15. When the series was lost, Lee was graciousness itself. And he had no cause for anything but pride: he had revived a Test career stalled for two years when he was virtually ignored by the selectors. He was 28 and he was back.
Brett Lee was born in Wollongong on November 8, 1976. Like his name, his background was unpretentious. But his reputation as a fearsome young tearaway reached Sydney before he did. Along with his elder brother, Shane (who went on to play 45 one-day internationals), Brett represented the Oak Flats Rats cricket club where his slight frame and slinging, side-on action – which later caused severe back problems and was completely overhauled by Dennis Lillee – terrorised batsmen across the south coast of New South Wales.
He’s more of a man about town these days, as befits a past runner-up in Cleo magazine’s Bachelor of the Year competition. But he’s a committed cricketer. When he went home after the Ashes and helped clean up West Indies, he decided – in consultation with Ponting – that what remains of his Test career should be played out at full throttle, in bursts of four or five overs.
More than likely, he will be tearing in, teeth glinting in the Aussie sun, when England defend the Ashes at the end of the year. He hasn’t always convinced in Test cricket. But the best might lie ahead.
