IT'S meant to be a joke, says cricketer Shane Lee. It's nothing to do with Scott Muller.
That's Lee's assessment of the song Can't Bowl, Can't Throw, the opening track on a new CD featuring a handful of leading cricketers who have swapped bat and ball for guitars, drums and microphones in their band Six & Out.
Lee brothers Shane and Brett, plus Brad McNamara, Richard Chee Quee and Gavin Robertson release their debut album this week. The CD features a few songs written by the players as well as a handful of cover versions, such as Daddy Cool's Eagle Rock and Sherbet's Howzat.
But it's Can't Bowl, Can't Throw that is causing a fuss. Muller, the Queensland paceman, became synonymous with the phrase last year after a TV comment that was first attributed to Shane Warne but later admitted to by Nine network cameraman Joe Previtera.
Yesterday Muller said he was disappointed in the song and the media attention he was receiving.
"I feel pretty strongly about it, but I'm not prepared to say any more," he said. 'That goes for all the media."
Muller is upset by what he describes as "being betrayed" by a member of the Queensland press last week over the story.
Before the song came out, Shane Lee called Muller to explain that it was a joke and wasn't about him. "I hope he's all right about it," Lee said in Sydney yesterday.
Player-turned-commentator McNamara, who plays guitar on the CD, said: "All we're doing is taking the mickey out of ourselves. It has nothing to do with the incident. The gist of the song is that people get rejected and in the end you have to get up off your bum and start again. People have been trying to turn it into a go at Scott Muller, but it's not.
"We would never bag another professional sportsman. We all know what you have to go through to do that. We never set out to bag him. I think Scott's a very good player."
-IAIN SHEDDEN, Music writer