For a split second, I thought Brett Lee had broken my arm.
One of fastest bowlers on the planet had steamed in and planted a 145km/h delivery smack bang above my left elbow.
A lump the size of a Kookaburra immediately surfaced. The man they call Binga – the same blistering paceman who last month broke the nose of Brendon McCullum with a bouncer – had just added a foolish journalist to his long list of casualties.
“And I wasn’t even bowling at full pace,” Lee said afterwards, as I tried to look tough midway through a Sydney Sixers training session in the SCG nets.
The plan was to face an over from Lee and to get a snapshot of what the Perth Scorchers will put up with tonight in the Big Bash League. Munching on party pies from high up in the press box, journos often quip how it would be a breeze to face Lee, or any paceman for that matter.
Borrowing Lee’s bat, pads, thigh pad and box (Lee made it clear the protector was at no stage to go inside my underpants) I quickly learned how difficult it was.
I even strapped a video camera to my head, Blair Witch-style, in case I didn’t live to tell the tale. Suddenly, the nerves kicked in. What if Lee hit me in the head? What if Binga’s box was too small? How many times had I bagged Lee for bowling pies in a one-dayer or Twenty20 game?
Stuart Clark, the former Test seamer and Sixers general manager, came rushing over and did his best to rev up Lee.
“Just remember how many times he’s written bad stuff about you. He wrote last year Trent Copeland bowled faster than you,” Clark said. Copeland, for the record, bowls about 135km/h on a good day, while Lee has stopped the clock at 160km/h.
The first delivery I didn’t see. I didn’t come close with the second. Ditto the third, fourth, fifth and sixth balls.
A “bonus” seventh ball whizzed past my ears. And then came the short one to the elbow. Lee smiled. I tried to straighten my arm.
Lee recalled the day he had knocked out West Indian Shiv Chanderpaul. How he’d also fractured the eye socket of Alex Tudor. Now he had the almighty Italian right-hander, Christian Nicolussi.
“As a fast bowler, you don’t want to see guys get injured,” Lee says. “I don’t like the sight of blood. It doesn’t mean I won’t bowl short, and the short ball can be effective way to get a batsman out, but I’m not a sadist.” Try telling that to my elbow, Binga.
Brett lee was,is and will be in everyone’s heart forever.He is the source of inspiration for me.