FORGET Shane Warne and Stuart MacGill - Ricky Ponting's most urgent challenge when he takes over the Test captaincy will be sorting out Brett Lee.
Lee's Test career is at the crossroads, and he is in need of urgent guidance as he confronts the mid-life crisis all tearaway fast bowlers meet when they drop from late-150km/h territory to mid-140km/h.
Those precious 10-15km/h shape their cricketing lives. With them, you can bully the cricket world. Without them, you must either develop more skills or get knocked out like a boxer fighting out of his division.
If there is one point to come out of the Australia-India Test series it is that the time is right for Australia to employ a specialist bowling coach to help fast bowlers as they prepare for life beyond Glenn McGrath.
Cricket Australia should approach someone such as Geoff Lawson, Damien Fleming or Bruce Reid to travel with the side during its Test campaigns and work closely with the bowlers - not just on techniques but on building up their fragile self-esteem for the tough times ahead when they will be burdened by comparisons with a golden era.
If AFL clubs can see the need for special coaches for their backs, forwards and ruckmen, surely the nation's cricket side can see the benefit of a bowling coach.
Steve Waugh made a valid point when he said cricket's fastest bowlers must be picked young because that is when they are at their quickest.
Lee is 27 - not old by bowling standards, but he will never be as quick as he was.
It was a sad sight to see him over-compensating for his 15 first-day no-balls by bowling half-a-metre inside the crease yesterday, devoid of rhythm.
When tearaway fast bowlers lose pace they tend to go either of two ways.
Some, like Richard Hadlee and Dennis Lillee, learn new tricks and make up for lost metres by conjuring crafty seam and swing.
Others, like former NSW fast bowler and Ashes tourist Wayne Holdsworth, fade quickly because they don't have the height to gain extra bounce or the swing and seam to keep batsmen guessing.
Holdsworth is the most relevant comparison to Lee because they came from the same state, are about the same height and bowl in a similar fashion.
They skid on to batsmen - and that makes them vulnerable because their margin for error is small.
Skyscraping fast bowlers such as Curtly Ambrose could always get away with bowling a mixed length because even when they got it wrong they got enough bounce to stop batsmen from driving them.
Skidders such as Lee get away with nothing.
When McGrath once said he would rather get bounce than pace, people thought he was trying to cover for his lack of speed. But he was right and his record, compared with that of Lee, proves the point.
The national selectors have reportedly been concerned at Lee's fading Test record for some time.
His Test career started with a bang, but he is averaging around 38 runs per wicket in the 30 Tests he has played since returning from elbow surgery in 2001.
You can not exist for long on those figures.
Because of his debonair looks and natural flamboyance, some observers have branded Lee a pretty boy who gets a saloon passage, but there is more to him than that.
He works hard, treats his body well and takes nothing for granted. He is not arrogant. Few players have ever been nicer to fans.
The media loves him because he is polite and courteous, even when he is out of form.
But he needs results urgently to prove he has a Test match future.