COLE HITCHCOCK talks to Brett Lee about the bowler he feared most growing up in Oak Flats Pace sensation Brett Lee admits to being scared of facing big brother Shane when they were youngsters playing backyard Tests at Oak Flats, just south of Wollongong.
Now the lightning-fast 23-year-old is carving a name for himself by inflicting the same sort of terror upon batsmen that he remembers all too well.
The blond fast bowler has the potential of a young Lillee or a Thomson. The world is seemingly at his feet. But often it is too easy to get swept away with instant adulation that gets heaped upon the next big thing that comes along in cricket or any other sport for that matter.
Yet for all the hype that currently surrounds him, Brett Lee is careful not to get too far ahead of himself. He has felt the knocks that elder brother Shane has had in his first-class and international career.
Shane was always considered the one with the superior all-round talent and was the envy of the family when he made his Australian one-day debut.
"Shane has been the perfect older brother, a huge influence, " says Brett. "There's a lot of hype surrounding me, but I'm just a guy who has played a couple of Tests."
It was Shane who gave his little brother his first taste of fast bowling. He would harass him in the backyard by bombarding him with bumpers. Mostly it was with a tennis ball, but occasionally the real thing.
Little did Shane know that some years later when they both bean to emerge in grade cricket that his brother would develop into one of the fastest bowlers in the world.
It was then they made an unwritten pact not to bowl to each other in the nets as both feared for their safety. Largely they have been able to avoid one another since.
"Shane loved bouncing me. Now he won't bowl to me in the nets because he still seems to find my inside thigh, my ribs or something - it's too dangerous," Brett said.
Dennis Lillee took a special interest in Brett after first meeting him as a 15-year-old. They have kept regular contact and had the occasional one-on-one coaching session.
It was Lillee who helped Lee overcome the lower-back problems which limited his first-class career before bursting onto the scene this summer.
"Having someone like him there for me is kind of weird," says Lee. "he ties things together perfectly. He knows there's a big difference in bowling fast and trying to hurt people or bowling fast with good control."
There are two fundamental differences between Lee and Shoaib Akhtar, whose whole focus is bowling fast.
"Pace is my biggest asset, but that is the least of my worries," Lee says.
"From who I experience, line and length in Test cricket is so important. You can't blast them out which might be in the case in first grade of Shield cricket."
Lee learnt his most important lessons from the great Sachin Tendulkar.
"It's a scary thought when you are a fast bowler steaming in with some good yorkers, and he is flicking you all over the park. I learnt so much from that," Lee says.
"His bat looks so heavy - it's so long and thick, but he still has so much time that he waves it around like a toothpick."