Rock and roll's a tough business. One day you are playing some really good gigs; the next you are up the creek and looking for a bass guitarist.So when Brett Lee as selected to play for his country, his New south wales mates should have been pretty chuffed, right?
They were. But fellow cricketer Richard Chee Quee was in astrife. His mate, Brettlee, the bloke with the ginger hair and strong right arm, was off to take his place in the Australian side. Bloody great news, that. But jeez, where do you find a bass guitarist at such short notice, mate?
History does not record whether CHEE QUEE, himself a century maker for New south wales, was able to get a stand-in for the group, called SIX AND OUT. History does record, however , that 23-year old BrettLee took seven wickets on debut against India in the Boxing day test match at the MCG.
In the absence of Jason Gillespie, Australia still needed a strike bowler.Scott Muller had been tried. Michael Kasprowicz was in the wings. But Steve Waugh was talking about Shane Lee's younger brother , Brett. waugh was impressed by the younger Lee's pace, his ability and his quest for constant improvement.
And so it was, the day before the MCG test , that cricket writers witnessed one of the game's stranger sights. The Australian side had not yet been announced, but at the net session that day, Glenn Mcgrath and Shane Warne bowled alongside the younger of the two Lee lads. where were the media's cameras pointing? At Mcgrath and Warne, with a combined haul of more than 600 test wickets between them? No. They were focused on the kid who hadn't played a test match yet.
When later that day, journalists asked Steve Waugh whether Kasprowicz or Lee would be playing, the Australian captain fixed them with a gimlet eye. "Looks like you blokes have made up your minds already" he deadpanned.
Sure enough, Brett Lee made his debut the next day. His fourth delivery removed Sadagopan Ramesh's off stump. Only 11 Australians have taken a wicket with their first over in test cricket; the last was Tony mann, when he dismissed Gundappa Vishwanath in Brisbane in the 1977-78 series. Then Lee removed Rahul Dravid before getting Mannava Prasad and Ajit Agarkar in successive deliveries. The debutant was on a hatrick. Javagal Srinath thwarted him, but then gloved the last ball of the over to slip. Lee had 5-44 in his first test innings. He was to take two more in the second innings.
If he was over-awed by his own success, it did not show. There was still a sense of humility in his own assesssment of what had happened.He spoke respectfully of tendulkar's class, acknowledging that the Indian captain was one of his heroes. "His bat looks so heavy," Lee said. "It's so long and thick and he's got so much time. He waves it around like it's a tooth pick. It's quite a scary thing when you are a bowler trying to steam in there , trying to bowl big yorkers, and he is just flicking you all over the park. It's a great experience to bowl to him."
What did he feel about the honour of bowling first change after Mcgrath and Fleming? His disarming answer was typical. "I wouldn't have cared ifa I had bowled sixth change," he said. Of his 5-wicket haul, he simply said, "I'm still waiting to wake up, I reckon. I think I might be dreaming this. This is an experience I'll never forget. It's one of those things I've dreamt about but I didn't expect to take five wickets. It's a very proud feeling. I'm very honoured and very happy."
In the stands at the MCG, watching younger brother make his test debut, was Shane, who made his one-day debut in 1995 but has not played a test match yet. Unselfishly, he said it gave him a great buzz to see Brett scythe through the indian batsmen. Watching him get his first wicket in that amazing first over gave Shane, by his own admission, "goosebumps'.
In an article for the Sunday Herald headlined , "GO FOR IT , BRO", Shane wrote about his pride in simple yet telling prose, "Not so long ago" he wrote, "brett was having trouble walking, let alone bowling, as two seperate back injuries threatened his career. For six months he had to wear a chest-to-waist brace that severely limited his movement. But he persevered. At no time did he whinge about the injury, or even worry about how it might his carrer further down the track.
"Instead, Brett relied on self-confidence, and a revised bowling action conceived by fast bowling legend Dennis Lillee, to get him through, all the while knowing he was good enough to reach this level if he remained patient. And here we are . Boxing Day. Probably the biggest day on the Australian sports calender . It's quite incredible when you think about it, but I couldn't have been happier when I hear of his selection".
Like the Waughs, the other great New south wales cricketing family, there are three Lee brothers. But perhaps they would not have been so well known if their father had not put down acricket pitch in the family's Wollongong backyard. It is said that the three Lee lads each had a role to play. Shane was the batsman. Brett was the bowler. And Grant the fielder.
Brett was quoted, in the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD about those early games. "The pitch was fast like the WACA in Perth. We brought out the tennis balls. I was always the bowler and never got the chance to bat much. Backyard cricket was great times. That's where you learn your basics, the fundamentals of playing cricket. I suppose I'm not dreaming now. it's been quite a while, a couple of weeks . But it's certainly a dream come true being chosen for australia.
The last year has been like a fairy tale, and if I have to make a few adjustments to keep it going then it's a pretty easy ask".