Few written tributes can more succinctly or completely capture Brett Lee’s playing career than did the televised pictures of his involvement in what could well be his penultimate competitive match.
There he was last night, taking the new ball in search of the vital early strike against the KFC Big Bash League’s dominant batting line-up as he sought to again steer his side into the finals.
The fact that as a world-class exponent of cricket’s most gruelling job – the express pace fast bowler – Lee continued to not only play but as a potential match-winner as well as a drawcard, until beyond his 38th birthday.
The records that Lee takes with him into retirement, and indeed a future already secured in a similar if not the same commentary box in which Ponting now spends much of his summer, are considerable and would doubtless be evaluated as even more so if he had not played in the era of bowling greats Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath.
Australia’s fourth-highest Test wicket-taker of all-time behind Warne, McGrath and Dennis Lillee.
Equal-highest wicket taker for Australia in one-day internationals, although McGrath can claim an extra scalp having played for an ICC World XI.
And even after a calf injury – his first major muscle tear in almost 20 years of top-level cricket – robbed him of plans to finish his international career at the ICC World T20 in 2012, Lee continued to ply his attritional trade in the Indian Premier League and the BBL.
Of the 14 Australians to have taken 200 Test wickets or more, none have returned them at a higher average than Lee’s 30.82 apiece.
Which makes his post-Test career – he played his final match in a Baggy Green cap at the same venue where he started (the MCG) just over six years ago – even more noteworthy.
Reverse swinging yorkers, slower ball bouncers, ‘perfume balls’ that could whizz past a batsman’s nose and make him reconsider any thoughts of charging down the pitch.
The arsenal that Lee developed through his Test experience enabled him to prolong his career in a format of the game that – at first glance – he would have seemed something of a mismatch for.
But as his final game for the Sydney Sixers will doubtless prove and as he is afforded the send-off he so duly deserves, Brett Lee was never one to shy away from a challenge.
And he took them all on with a smile.
