Tag Archives: Lee

brett lee’s summer

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My favourite part of the AB medal last night came at the very end of the evening when Brett Lee was officially presented with the Summer. All throughout the season the comments have been repeating themselves endlessly, mostly from Mark Nicholas: This is Brett Lee’s summer. This is Brett Lee’s summer. This is Brett Lee’s summer. This is Brett Lee’s summer. These comments accrued to such a degree that Cricket Australia was left with no option but to legitimise the claims being made on Brett’s behalf. Fittingly it was Mark Nicholas himself that made the presentation, declaring “The 05/06 summer is henceforth in the possession of Brett Lee – careful Bing it may be a little warm.” Brett is said to be very happy with his new season and intends to try and attain the complete set of 4 before auctioning the collection to raise money for charity.

celebrate

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When Brett Lee clean bowled Jacques Kallis this morning after 40 odd days and nights of dot balls his celebration was unparalleled. He skipped high into the air, his fists appeared unsure of quite what move they could possibly perform to truly capture the joy of the moment – so they simply performed every move. And performed them to perfection. The cowboy roping steer lasso move was particularly admirable. Who would have thought that only a few hours later, shortly after the Milo Lunchbreak, this audacious celebration would be surpassed. Not once but three times. Andrew Symonds’ celebrations just got better and better with each wkt he took. He was only just staying on his feet. The whole of the cricketing world is praying that he scores a powerful blistering century in the second innings and retains his place in the side. Really with these celebrations it could be considered that he has done enough to cement his place in the side.

you can get it dreamin

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the long sleep between ashes series (from one day to the next) goes on soundly. there a slight stirrings, and there are dreams: of encounters with dream teams that crumble in a heap; vivid dreams set in pakistan full of hi jinx and subterfuge and with glorious endings; of golden dream boys dropped from the team; of brett lee shopping or singing; of a one day series in new zealand that defies even the logic of dreams with its frenetic nightmarish movement; of a batsman who can never be dismissed; and the greatest dream of all, an immense figure from the past returning to haunt the cricket world with a new prominence.

urn malley, like his fellow dreamers, searches for the fragments of time that have entered the dreams from the future. he looks for the patterns & associations that his sleeping mind discerns out of his compacted past, and sees the next ashes series playing itself out already

happy people on rooftops

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Seeing endless shots of the public of London cluttering the rooftops around the Oval for a distant glimpse of the cricket, it was hard to feel sad about the result. They filled the windows of every surrounding apartment, they stood on roofs on the other side of the city with binoculars, veritably the people of England had taken to the skies.

I am more saddened by the fact that the Ashes are over. I can’t contemplate watching any other 2 teams compete in a test match now. It won’t seem like a real test. It will be as though its a multiple choice test or something.

That final 1st session was the greatest session of cricket I have ever seen. England scoring at over 4 an over, Australia pressing hard, creating chances, taking plenty of them. And Lee’s final over before lunch at KP. Holy shit. Surely the players don’t have to go off for lunch, surely lunch is offered to the fielding side. The Australians weren’t hungry, they’d clearly had their Weet-bix, stocked up on Milo. They could have kept go go go go go go go going all day.

After lunch the sadness set in. Sad that there wasn’t going to be a mad run chase, a final breathless last ditch attempt. After lunch, nothing.

music review (singles) : incomplete

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The selection comittee has met and decided that Australia must retain the same batting line up that has appeared in the previous 4 tests. Hayden must play. It would be cheating the narrative of the series if changes were to be made. Those that have dug their burrows must be the ones given the chance to dig themselves out. The responsibility must be borne squarely on these shoulders. They will be the desperate ones.

The desperation is very clear in the passion with which the Australian top 5 deliver their latest single ‘incomplete’ – the most powerful song to hit the charts since Robbie Williams’ heyday. While the lyrics of the song contain a certain sense of having given up hope, a resignation that now, with Steve Waugh long gone, the Ashes too are lost, the delivery of the song contains a searing emotion, a searing heart, that can only be built out of pure hope or even exact knowledge that it is within them to fill the empty spaces that are filling them up with holes – there is little room to doubt, in this impassioned and rawly honest self appraisal of where the Australian batting line up finds itself, that they will finally deliver that final telling blow. On the back of this song, the backstreet boys reaffirm their position as one of the greatest boybands in the world.

The second track on the ‘incompleete’ single contains the line – ‘lets not talk about a possible ending’.

last ditch

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On Monday morning after the conclusion to the test I sat on the tram in a daze. I had taken my book from my satchel and was planning to read it but I just sat there with it in my hands as I thought about the cricket. My breathing was all over the place. I was basically sighing or maybe even panting – there was exhaustion and tension and exhiliration all involved in the make up of my gasping. And I hadn’t even satyed up to watch the England innings. I only heard about the score on the morning news. These magnificent last ditch efforts by the Australians (or should I attribute them more precisely – El Warno and Lee) are all well and good but just not quite good enough. Its tantalising stuff.

Its a shame there’s been so much whingeing from the Australian camp about substitues (ok, it’s a pretty iffy tactic of the Poms but it should be pursued quietly along the proper channels) and the umpires (certainly the umpiring’s been poor but only in the same way that Hayden’s form has been poor, or poor old Dizzy – misfiring players get replaced by other players, not by computer animated simulations.) Its not the outbursts on the field that are a problem, that’s heat of the battle stuff, the frustration after having worked so hard takes over, as is reasonable. Its in the days between matches that losing teams need to keep their gripes tightly quiet, to speak is to be a sore loser and displays in some sense an acceptance of the fact that they are not cut out for copping sweet blows and going on to really challenge a dominant opposition.

remember the good times

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One of my International Research Assistants of Mystery found these postings to the Deluxe Bicycle Club’s Chat Group – reminding us of that magical first test where le tour and le ashes melted into one another as if in a dream (and Australia were still comfy winners):

Comments: …Brett Lee’s next ball to Vinokourov is short of a length, Vino opens the shoulders and swings but miss cues and the ball skews high, high into the air and just past the outstretched fingers of Gillespie who is fielding at deep mid wicket. Dizzy stumbles backwards and pulls up just short of a giddy precipice and just in time too as, moments later, a breakaway group of riders containing Cadel Evans, Michael Rasmussen and Shane Warne plummeted by on the treacherous descent of the Col du Telegraph and, I don’t know about you Phil, but I think Warney’s been sneaking powerbars out of the KOM’s musette bag…

Comments: Brilliant mate, love it.

But will Warney be dropped on the first climb up the stands to Col de Bay 13?Or will he attack as they descend from the outer?

Now we just need a pommie equivalent to Gabrielle Gate to bring us some fine gordon blue brit cuisine b4 the first over.

C’arn Cadel.

faith, hope

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“Noel Coward once said that he could handle the despair; it was the hope he couldn’t stand.” From Gideon Haigh’s Ashes Diary.

I quite like the hope. I don’t think my hopes can possibly be disappointed from here on in. If I’m hoping for great cricket matches then I can’t be happier with the way my hopes have already been met. The thing that was becoming an issue for me was faith. The faith that no matter how good England are (and they are amazingly good – especially their bowling attack) my boys will not let England win these Ashes. Some sort of faith that England don’t quite deserve it yet (the current Australian team certainly doesn’t deserve to lose) and that justice will be done. Obviously this faith has been wavering. Hayden hasn’t produced the immensity of batting that I was sure he was going to – none of the batsmen had until Ponting on Monday. Gillespie has found nothing to provide fuel to faith. I was sure El Warno was going to complete that century on Sunday, I had complete faith in him, yet I was let down once again. My faith was strong after Edgbaston even though Australia had lost. The fight they provided was more than I had ever expected. I took this as an entirely good omen. After the first four and a half days of the Old Trafford test faith was gone, I was sure I would awaken to the news that Australia had been bowled out in the second last over. Close things were going England’s way – they had done everything to deserve it. Everything, it turned out, except win. Ponting’s quest was one of immaculate application. Faith is restored. My feeling after Edgbaston was that England wouldn’t win another test this series. Obviously that idea had been dismissed long ago. It is now back in force. Faith has been putting on this wonderfully exhilirating binary dance – a series of zeroes and 1s. May this spectacular light show go on, from this point on it will be superficial. The overall faith in the boys is as solid now as it ever was.

Clarkie is still to unleash his full powers (waiting for the right moment, the ultimate test, when everything is on the line).

Hayden is still due to annihilate.

El Warno may never score a test century but his greatness is unquestionable – he is forever redeemed.

McGrath has a new foot – his rejuvenation has begun, piece by piece (Brett Lee was given the grisly hand me down – it’s good to keep a high quality spare).

Ponting has graduated.

Perhaps Dizzy can even become a new master of reverse swing – he has 8 days.