Brett Lee has admitted he is acutely embarrassed by the latest potentially lethal head-high full-toss he delivered to England opening batsman Marcus Trescothick.
But Lee has once again maintained the beamer - cricket's most feared and loathed weapon - was an innocent if unsavoury mistake caused by problems with footholds in his delivery stride.
Trescothick was lucky to escape serious injury during the third over of Saturday's tri-series final at Lord's when a searing in-swinger to the left-hander whistled past him at throat height on the full.
The opener threw his head back to escape its path, and finished up on bent knees on the pitch as Lee followed through and immediately apologised, claiming the ball had slipped from his grasp.
Lee revealed yesterday the problem was caused by the soft ground near the popping crease and that he was left badly shaken by the incident which prompted an official warning from veteran umpire David Shepherd.
Lee also acknowledged that his bowling was affected for some time afterwards despite the on-field reassurances he received from his senior team-mates, captain Ricky Ponting, vice-captain Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden.
"It just shook me up," Lee said yesterday. "I know it probably would have shook Trescothick up as well, but I felt embarrassed. That's probably the best word to use.
"I did sort of go into my shell a little bit after that.
"Ricky (Ponting) came up and asked if I was all right, and I said I was fine.
"But I went around the wicket, I changed my spikes, I put sawdust down to make sure it didn't happen again. It took me a few more balls to get going again.
"Then I obviously went up and spoke to Marcus after the game, and he was cool about it."
Indeed, the easy-going Trescothick's reluctance to confront Lee over the beamer enabled the incident to become all but forgotten after the match's thrilling finish.
Had Trescothick responded with the same fury as New Zealand's Brendon McCullum justifiably did when he copped a chest-high full toss on the gloves from Lee during a match in Auckland last February, it's likely the Australian would be feeling more than remorse.
Saturday's incident was the fourth of its kind in as many one-day international tournaments for Lee who was accused by NZ coach John Bracewell of being the only bowler in world cricket who repeatedly delivered beamers.
That claim was dismissed as "a load of rubbish" by Ponting, but the Auckland mishap also prompted one respected Australian newspaper columnist to call for Lee to be stood down immediately from the Australian limited-overs team.
Concerns also have been raised as to the timing of the incidents.
The high full-toss delivered to Abdul Razzaq in Sydney last January came after the Pakistani had sent two similarly nasty deliveries at Lee earlier in the day.
The McCullum incident arose after the combative Kiwi dodged a bouncer which was called wide, then upper-cut a follow-up express delivery over the off-side for runs.
In Trescothick's case, the beamer arrived after an appeal for a leg-side catch (which flicked the opener's pad) was denied and the next ball was crisply driven and runs extracted from a resultant overthrow.
But Lee yesterday reiterated that he was pulling out all stops to eradicate the inadvertent missile - which he explains as an attempted yorker that misses its mark - from his armoury.
Australia's bowling blueprint dictates that yorkers are the preferred option to close down scoring shots, and even a bowler as reliably accurate as Glenn McGrath can overshoot the target (as he did in Saturday's frenetic final over) and produce a waist-high full-toss.
Asked if he believed the beamer was an unfortunate fact of life for an express pace bowler operating with small margins for error, Lee replied: "I hope not, no.
"I've bowled two or three in 109 one-dayers and 37 Test matches (and) hopefully it won't happen again.
"I am doing everything in my power to make sure it doesn't happen.
"So, it's just a matter of having great footwear, being comfortable at the crease. I have fantastic spikes (in boots) now, so I have got all the measures in place to make sure it doesn't happen again."
England yesterday added Sussex wicketkeeper-batsman Matt Prior to a 15-man squad for the three-match one-day challenge series against Australia which begins at Headingley tomorrow. He replaces dumped seamer Kabir Ali in the England squad.
- ANDREW RAMSEY