Brett Lee says you have to be a little bit crazy to bowl quick.
That’s because the legendary Australian fast man didn’t play a game completely free of pain after the age of 17.
The champion of 76 Tests and 221 one-day internationals has opened up on his relentless and overwhelming pursuit of breaking the 160km/h speed barrier and a Baggy Green after he was unveiled as the new inductee to the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame on Monday.
And standing in the shadow of his statue outside the MCG, Lee paid tribute to Dennis Lillee’s impact on his career and revealed how time spent in Perth helped fast-track his career.
“I’m very, very honoured and very grateful,” he said of the honour.
Lee was the hitman in Australia’s golden era of fast bowlers. But beyond the Ashes and World Cup victories, he was extremely driven in his chase of a personal mark — becoming the fastest bowler ever. He compared the 160km/h barrier like the four-minute mile in athletics.
“To have that thrill of being able to run in, bowl quick and see the stumps fly, it became this obsession. That’s what I wanted to do,” he said.
“I think back to (being) nine or 10, and I wanted to break that 160 barrier.
“Jeff Thompson was a guy I looked up to through the 70s and 80s, that 160.45 was his record, and I thought I wanted to have a crack at that one day and I was lucky to achieve it.
“To bowl those speeds it takes dedication, sacrifices, you have to have the right timing, your foot’s got to land in the right spot, you need that momentum, the inertia, through your body and be a little bit crazy sometimes too because of the pain barrier you have to go through.
“Mum had the sporting genes, Helen, she was a sprinter, so I was lucky I had those fast-twitch fibres.”
The New South Wales quick passed it on a number of occasions and his laser focus on the mark even became a running joke among teammates.
“Oh I was looking up at the scoreboard,” Lee joked when asked if he was aware when he had passed the figure.
“Ricky Ponting, my favourite captain to play under, reckoned I had to get physiotherapy every time I bowled a ball because I looked up to see what the speed was.”
Lee first met Lillee at fast bowling camp in Sydney, but after a series of injury setbacks, national team staff sent the blonde bombshell to Perth to work with Australia’s greatest-ever quick.
“It’s quite ironic that we’ve got the great DK Lillee just over there to my right,” Lee said.
“He’s been the one person in my life that’s been instrumental in allowing me to achieve my dream.
“I first met DK when I was 16, I went to a fast bowler’s camp in Sydney. He said ‘you’re the quickest here, but if you don’t change your action in two years I reckon you’ll have a broken back.
“When you’re 16 you think you’re invincible and two years later I broke my back.
“Throughout my career he has been incredible in modifying my action … and allowing me to get to the speeds I did because of his guidance. I’ll be jumping on a call with him today to thank him personally.”
It’s appropriate, given the influence that stint in Perth had on his career, that Lee believes the fastest spell he’s ever launched was at the WACA Ground.
The only problem? There were no speed guns.
“I think back to 1999, just before I broke into the Australian team here in Melbourne, it was a game at the WACA, I was bowling with a slips cordon of Brad Haddin, Michael Bevan, my brother Shane, Steve and Mark Waugh … all the legends of the game,” he said.
“And I reckon that day was the quickest I’ve ever bowled. Things happen some times and you get that perfect day. The wind was correct, the wicket was carrying through.
“But there was no speed gun there. You actually know as a bowler when you’re getting close to what is the perfect milestone and two weeks later I bowled here at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. I think I hit about a 156 and it felt a lot slower than what I bowled over there.”
Lee also gave flowers to Australia’s current crop of quicks. He was on the Sydney Sixers’ list later in his career with all three of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood.
He particularly admired Starc’s ability to push through injury niggles to deliver a stunning Ashes series aged 35.
“I’m very appreciative, I know first-hand the toll it takes on the body,” Lee said.
“People at home don’t realise how hard it is on the body, the stressors on the body. Imagine running into bowl with what feels like a knife going into the back of your ankle, he has had lots of ankle issues.
“Mitch, he is just incredible. He has been in a purple patch the last couple of weeks, I don’t see him pulling up stumps any time soon, because his approach to the wicket, the way he runs in, he’s a beautiful athlete and he’s taking wickets for fun over the past couple of weeks.”
