Dennis Lillee No.3

In January 1975, with my HSC finished and uni looming, I went to the SCG for the final couple of days as Australia regained the Ashes they had lost against the Boycott-Snow show in 70-71 ... a loss which cost Bill Lawry the captaincy and his Test place. Just as John SNow had terrorised the Australians, so this had been a gladiatorial summer as the English professionals were bashed, battered and beaten up by a women. Lillean Thomson had done so much damage that Colin Cowdrey left his armchair in an English winter for the glare and heat haze of Perth, where the temperature was the same as his age (42). Watching this well oiled Australian machine so brilliantly led by Ian Chappell was then and still is the highlight of my live cricket viewing.

Of them all, Dennis Lillee was magnificent. That summer he had returned after breaking his back with the ball in his hand on this same ground. I went there expecting a slower Lillee, now cast in a supporting role to the wild tear away, Jeff Thomson. From side on, I could only tell where the ball was when either released and then when Marsh took it, usually a pitch and half behind the stumps and often at chest height. Thomson was lightning, erratic and bloody dangerous but Lillee was beautiful.

Rod Marsh always reckoned Thommo was consistently faster than Lillee but on the odd occasion when a batsmen required reminding, he still said Lillee was quicker. That could well be clever wicket keeper's diplomacy but I saw enough to suggest it was true. In his time, there was no fiercer competitor in world cricket than DK. Even in his dotage he fired up some nasty outswingers to capture wickets in his 40's against the touring Englishmen at Lilac Hill. The man never knew how to lie down. Shield batsmen knew all about it too as he never turned up to play without giving everything, which always included the scowl, the grin, the flick of sweat from brow with that long index finger and always the most perfect approach to the wicket, leap, delivery and follow through world cricket has seen since Lindwall. God knows how many wickets he might have taken if he played as many Tests as the modern heroes.

Mark me down as a romantic making judgements biased by the era and players I saw but Dennis Lillee remains the best bowler I have seen - technically, passionately, competitively and intelligently. He has not had the influence of Shane Warne but then Warne has had so many more media tools at his disposal and a sweet heart relationship with the Australian media and public that gains him forgiveness for any indiscretion and goodness knows there have been a lot of them. Lillee is a good boy in comparison. He placed a bet as a joke which looks far more sinister now than it did then, took an aluminium bat to Mike Brearley and a boot to Miandad. I'm sure if he knew he would get three games for it, he would have kicked harder.

In retirement Lillee remains the master, coaching in schools on the subcontinent, England and Australia, thinking only of bowlers, not their countries. You can't compare players from different eras, you just have to make a judgment call from the gut. As much as it might have been fine to have seen Lillee v Tendulkar or Warne v Richards (either one really), they are just salivations of the mind, spoken of over barbie beers to irritate wives. Its enough that my wife only reveres two cricketers out of the thousands I've told her about ... endlessly ... Greg Chappell and Dennis Lillee. She even knows their middle initials. How Zen is that?

If I only had one spot in my team for a bowler, I'd pick Lillee, not Warne. 

So says my gut.