You can Brett on him

As Brett Lee begins his run up to the wicket, keep your eyes wide open. Blink — and you just might miss the action. He is part of a very rare club of bowlers — men who are capable of bowling at over 160 km/h. Like most of his breed, he is a showman too.

Just after he takes a wicket, Lee jumps and punches the air in sheer delight.

The celebration has made him a favourite with photographers worldwide but it also serves a more important mission — it intimidates.

Meet Lee outside the match arena and you wouldn’t believe that this is the same person who loves to knock batsmen down. He is part of a rock band, Six and Out, owns a coffee shop, designs clothes, surfs, acts in movies and is a charmer in every sense of the word.

One lot he hasn’t been able to charm are the batsmen, very few of who relish facing upto the challenge that Lee throws at them. Over the years, Lee earned a reputation of being a bowler who isn’t afraid of hurting batsmen. Search the words ‘Bree Lee beamer’ on Google and the search throws up 62,000 results. Not just a coincidence, is it?

Everytime things don’t seem to be going his way, Lee tended to slip in a beamer (a full toss aimed at the head). It happened so often during Australia’s tour of New Zealand in 2005 that NZ coach John Bracewell just couldn’t hold back.

“It is the fourth time this season that he’s beamed one of our guys. He’s been apologetic every time he’s done it,” Bracewell said. “He was apologetic when he came round the wicket and did it to Chris Harris, and Paul Wiseman, and he’s apologised twice to Brendon McCullum.”

Lee, for his part, believed that it has something to do with his footwear and that it also comes as part of his being a fast bowler.

“When you are bowling at such a high velocity and trying to get momentum through the crease, and try to bowl a yorker, you only look at a slight variation in your trajectory to the wicket,” he had then said.

Controversy hasn’t been alien to Lee but it came much after the accolades. As a 21-year-old, who made his debut against India in 1999, he inspired fear. He claimed 13 wickets in two Tests at an impressive average of 14.15. In his first three Test series, the Aussie paceman claimed 40 wickets — the most by any Australian bowler in his first seven matches.

Everything seemed to be progressing smoothly and then injuries struck. A stress fracture of the back was sustained in his seventh Test and that kept him out of the next three Tests played by Australia. It was a sign of things to come. Injuries have blighted his progress and it is only of late that he has managed to put his fitness woes behind him

In his last 10 Tests, he has taken 44 wickets and proved to the Aussie selectors that he was more than capable of stepping into Glenn McGrath’s shoes.

When Cricket Australia announced the central contracts in July this year, they had no hesitation is naming Lee as the number one paceman in the country, ahead of the likes of McGrath and Jason Gillespie.

Lee’s rise to the top has been accompanied by a change in his bowling stratagem.

While he looked to pulverise the batsmen with sheer pace early in his career, in McGrath’s absence, he has realised the values of line and length too. So while he still retains the ability to bowl fast, really fast, the 29-year-old now prefers to temper it down unless the requirement is dire. As a result, Lee has been more effective than the only other fast bowler to whom he can be compared with interms of sheer pace: Pakistan’s Shoaib Akhtar.

Now, with the Ashes just three months away, Lee already has revenge on his mind. England better beware for just one song comes to mind:

Ashes to ashes,
Dust to dust,
Lee might hit you,
If he must.