Sydneysiders last night accused Cricket Australia of shortchanging them after being denied the chance to see local favourite Brett Lee.
Keen to accelerate his blistering limited overs form at the Sydney Cricket Ground yesterday, Lee struck a disappointed figure as 12th man after becoming the latest victim of CA's controversial rotation policy.
With no notice of Lee's omission until midday, the 40,000-strong crowd arrived in expectation of witnessing the New South Wales missile's exhilarating arsenal.
But they had to instead content themselves watching him deliver the drinks rather than his trademark 155km/h thunderbolts.
The 30 year old was informed of the decision to rest him in favour of Shaun Tait on Thursday.
Having already missed the first two games of the series with bronchitis and desperate to play on his home pitch, Lee was both surprised and disappointed.
Riding an encouraging vein of form since his comeback from illness, Lee immediately sought explanation from skipper Ricky Ponting and chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch. He also spoke at length with on-duty selector Merv Hughes at the ground.
As he and Hughes chatted, Australia's attack slumped to its worst start all summer as England's batsmen found form in Lee's absence.
Lee's manager Neil Maxwell said: "Brett is disappointed. He was definitely looking forward to playing in front of his home crowd.
"He loves playing in Sydney - he's a hometown boy. He always loves to play for Australia full stop but obviously playing in front of a sellout adds a bit more to it."
Even before yesterday's rest, Lee (four matches) - along with Glenn McGrath and Stuart Clark - was the least used of Australia's six regular bowlers.
Criticised for conceding too many runs, he boasted the best economy rate of 4.13 and had taken six wickets at an average of 26.16.
Ramping up in form ahead of the finals and the World Cup, Lee didn't want a break in momentum.
"Brett likes to maintain momentum in his bowling, and he was doing very well" Maxwell said.
"But at the same time he understands that there are people whose job it is to manage his workload and this is their decision."
Cricket Australia last night revealed Lee was scheduled to miss last Sunday's match against New Zealand in Perth.
CA general manager of operations Michael Brown conceded it was "not ideal" for stars to be rested from home matches but argued that unforseen circumstances in Perth forced a change.
"Stuart Clark was sore, so Brett Lee had to play in Perth," Brown explained.
According to CA, the unwritten "home ground" rest amnesty was also "complicated" yesterday by the side's four NSW bowlers - Lee, McGrath, Clark and Nathan Bracken.
"In an ideal world they would play every match in Sydney but we have so many players from NSW in the team," Brown said.
- JOSH MASSOUD