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Should Australia Drop Brett Lee?

Top_Cat

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Well the question is self-explanatory, really. Sadly, for his own good, i think it's time the Aussie selectors went for someone a little more seasoned. I'm all for taking advantage of Brett Lee's pace whilst he's got it but the Aussie selectors seem to want to avoid that. They seem to want him to be a line-and-length bowler of lesser pace and I think it's seriously affecting his bowling.

To me, when you have someone of real pace, you need to use it while you can, not try to convert them into something they're not. Maybe the Aussie selectors should drop him until he's developed the line-and-length aspect of his play when his pace has gone.

Either way, Brett Lee's ability is in his pace and if the Aussies don't want to capitalise on it, why is he even in the side?

So I say if you're not going to use his talent, drop him for Bichel or someone young like Bracken or Stuart Clarke.

Thoughts?
 

masterblaster

International Captain
Yeah, Im starting to get the impression that Brett Lee is severely overrated. I have always said from the start that Brett Lee burst onto the International stage, that Former Victorian Swing Bowler Damien Fleming was heaps, heaps better than Lee.

Pace is not good enough alone. Damien Fleming is a true gem of a bowler, and I wish he was Indian to compliment Zaheer Khan!
 

Rik

Cricketer Of The Year
Lee is over-rated but I don't think the Aussies will drop him as they still belive that their 3 man pace attack and Warne is a better attack than the 80's WIndies 4 man pace attack. Lee is also the ACB's pin up, and it wouldn't be good for them to drop him. The problem is while McGrath destroys batting sides, Gillespie lends useful support whilst not being as destructive as McGrath as often. But Lee has slipped a lot lately, and despite some Aussies on here saying it was all down to Lee being in bad form, his form hasn't improved much since and I think its just that the other teams have worked out that he is either fast and full or fast and short and wack him around.
 

Rik

Cricketer Of The Year
Whats the news on Fleming now? I know Miller retired which is a shame as I rated him a lot more than Hauritz and he was still fit, but what has happened to Fleming? Has he found a new state? He should be in the Australian squad as he is a superb bowler, Im amazed the Aussies have used him so little! Most International teams would kill to have a bowler like him! Not least Bangladesh or India :D
 

age_master

Hall of Fame Member
hes not, he has not had the best run of form over the last year but he is getting better (that bounce the other day that hit nazir in the head was an absolute ripper) - he would do well taking a leaf out of Aktars book and bowling alot more yorkers though

hes the 3rd best quick in Aus at tghe moment by far, have you noticed in recent times his rpo average has been going down

bracken is good but even less ecperienced than lee
 

Rik

Cricketer Of The Year
Yeah but because of his pace and occasional wildness he was going at over 3.5 runs an over in the Pakistan test...but I suppose its better than going for 85 off 10 in a ODI :P

Hmmmm, for a fast bowler Harmison has a very good economy rate...ok I know it was because most of his deliverys were unreachable but he did bowl Ganguly with a peach and for once he took wickets cheaply, I think he will enjoy Australian conditions a lot more as he relys on bounce and although he gets that in England most of the wickets he played on were slow, not least the pitch he played on in his 1st test, I wouldnt mind seeing an England pitch with pace in it as slow bouncy ones just let everyone fill their boots...
 

Gotchya

State Vice-Captain
but he is getting better (that bounce the other day that hit nazir in the head was an absolute ripper)
lol.....age now howz that an indication that he's getting better ? :frog:

Lee has tried to hone whatever movement he had into line and length. Now thats not a bad thing but the margin of error for pace bowlers is less considerably. In that effort, he has probably destroyed his ability to be an attacking bowler, at present he is roughly a wicket to wicket bowler who bowls regularly above 145. Besides that, he hasn't responded very well when
under pressure, pressure on the field as well as off it. An international player is expected to. He has a good steady action and there is not too much reason that he cant bowl good bowls, but the problem seems to be elsewhere.

In short he built a repute and then grounded it himself. At the moment he seems to be his way out of this side.
 

Rik

Cricketer Of The Year
An interisting fact is that Lee played his 1st 7 tests still suffering from a badly healed broken right elbow which caused him quite a lot of pain. He then broke the same elbow throwing on the boundary and had an operation to heal the break. He had 2 screws put in and a piece of bone was taken from his hip and used to strengthen his elbow. Before the operation his elbow could only get to 17 degrees off straight when he tried to straighten it...now it is down to 12. This was performed before the Ashes tour last year, strangely he has never reached the form he showed before the operation again! (I got this out a Wisden Cricket Monthly...oh how many of those I have...July 2001 Ashes Preview)

Interisting eh?
 

royGilchrist

State 12th Man
as they still belive that their 3 man pace attack and Warne is a better attack than the 80's WIndies 4 man pace attack
Who among the Aus camp thinks so? If someone did then tey are stupid and if u inferred it then u r stupid as I would not expect the Aussies to be that naive. Holding, Roberts, Garner, Corft, Marshall; 4 out of those 5 are better any day than McGrath, Gillispie, Lee and Warne. Overall the Aus team will be definetely close to the WI of yesteryears, atleast its debatable, due to the strong Aus batting line up, but there is no way the current Aus bowling line up is better than those WI teams.

All those guys had freaking averages a shade higher than 20!!
 

Anil

Hall of Fame Member
Who among the Aus camp thinks so? If someone did then tey are stupid and if u inferred it then u r stupid as I would not expect the Aussies to be that naive. Holding, Roberts, Garner, Corft, Marshall; 4 out of those 5 are better any day than McGrath, Gillispie, Lee and Warne. Overall the Aus team will be definetely close to the WI of yesteryears, atleast its debatable, due to the strong Aus batting line up, but there is no way the current Aus bowling line up is better than those WI teams.
Forget the above attack. They aren't even as good as say, Marshall, Ambrose, Walsh and Bishop. They definitely aren't as good as Lillee, Thommo, Gilmour and Walker. The Aussie attack is very good, but if they claim that they are better than the greatest attacks in test cricket, they are way off the mark.
 

MrPerko

School Boy/Girl Captain
Looking at...

McGrath-Gillespie-Williams

McGrath-Gillespie-Bichel

McGrath-Gillespie-Stuart

McGrath-Gillespie-Bracken


they don't look anywhere near as strong or as threatening as

McGrath-Gillespie-Lee



I totally disagree that Lee should turn into a boring "line and length" bowler - there's waaay too many of them as it is. I think that so long as Lee is taking wickets in both forms of the game, he should stay - no matter what is RPO is...



That's my two cents.
 

Tim

Cricketer Of The Year
I reckon they should try Brad Williams, I thought he had a good tour with Aus A to South Africa?
 

Tim

Cricketer Of The Year
Actually..lately Brett Lee has lost that mental advantage he had over the opposition where Steve Waugh hyped him up as being a demon bowler..but at the moment most teams seem to be unfazed batting against him like they are against Shoaib.

More & More batsmen are becoming better equipped to facing these speed freaks & if you don't have a good variety in your bowling you'll be found out, maybe thats where guys like Shoaib, Bond & Gillespie are excelling ahead of others.
 

Top_Cat

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I totally disagree that Lee should turn into a boring "line and length" bowler - there's waaay too many of them as it is. I think that so long as Lee is taking wickets in both forms of the game, he should stay - no matter what is RPO is...
See, I'm totally with you on this one. Brett Lee has the talent to bowl good line and length and can get some seriously good movement but let him develop that in time as his pace lessens. Use him as a quick bowler whilst he's still got it because no-one ever has it for very long. No-one is invincible.

Whats the news on Fleming now? I know Miller retired which is a shame as I rated him a lot more than Hauritz and he was still fit, but what has happened to Fleming? Has he found a new state? He should be in the Australian squad as he is a superb bowler, Im amazed the Aussies have used him so little! Most International teams would kill to have a bowler like him! Not least Bangladesh or India :D
I agree totally as I thought Damien Fleming was a superb bowler but unfortunately, after a reasonable run, he got injured again just at the wrong time.

Right now, he's moved to my state, the Southern Redbacks, but has a shoulder injury so won't play the first match of the season apparently.

Holding, Roberts, Garner, Corft, Marshall; 4 out of those 5 are better any day than McGrath, Gillispie, Lee and Warne.
Hang on a sec; just bear in mind that the attribute which got all 5 of those WI bowlers wickets was their ability to bowl line-and-length consistently to put pressure on the batsmen. All of them were VERY similar bowlers to Glenn McGrath in that they'd bowl a superb line all day with some variation thrown in. They were just a little quicker. I personally would put McGrath up against any of those bowlers and I'm sure he'd fare well.

With Warnie it's a no-contest because he's a spinner but with Gillespie and Lee, you're right on. Jason Gillespie is ready for a surge, though. It won't be long. Mark my words. :)
 

Eclipse

International Debutant
I think brett will get it right eventualy if anyone remembers Aktar went through a patch for about a year or so when his bowling was exactly the same as Brett Lee's is now expensive and not many wkts.

He sorted that out tough and is now one of the best bowlers in the world.
 

royGilchrist

State 12th Man
So TC, are you implying that the foru pronged Aus attack right now is on par with the mighty WI attack, in terms of effectiveness. We are not discussing variety, pace, swing or any such thing. A combination of everything they have to offer, effectiveness to win matches.

There is no contest. All those guys were similar bowlers, maybe Marshall was a bit different, but they were way more effective, and this was a result of pace, line and length, a bit of seam and whole lot of intimidation. McGrath is similar to those guys, perhaps more to Garner than anyone else especially the way he bowls these days, but let me tell you Holding and Marshall in their prime were way better than McGrath in his prime, and if I were a captain I would personally pick Roberts over McGrath if I already had other wicket taking bowlers in my team, just for pure intimidation. Also Croft on his day could be just devastating. And I did not even include Sylvester Clarke!!

Those bowlers just used to blow away powerful teams like Aus and Eng. Today the talent level is quite diluted (although now Im stepping into a grey area, and a topic for another debate), but Aus do make the best of their attack, and Warne and McGrath do match up well with greats but the other two dont even come close.

So, once again to emphasize, collectively the WI attack was way more effective than the current Aus attack.

BTW, in Gillispie's case I have gone with his performance to date, who knows what he will do next. And I was a big Fleming fan, sad how he has disappeared from the scene, a bit of a bruce rei syndrome I guess.

[Edited on 8/10/2002 by royGilchrist]
 

Top_Cat

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McGrath is similar to those guys, perhaps more to Garner than anyone else especially the way he bowls these days, but let me tell you Holding and Marshall in their prime were way better than McGrath in his prime, and if I were a captain I would personally pick Roberts over McGrath if I already had other wicket taking bowlers in my team, just for pure intimidation. Also Croft on his day could be just devastating. And I did not even include Sylvester Clarke!!
Well that's your opinion and your entitled to it but I'd stack up Glenn McGrath's record and performances against any of those bowlers and in my opinion he'd fare quite well, at least being on par with them.

And I was a big Fleming fan, sad how he has disappeared from the scene, a bit of a bruce rei syndrome I guess.
Now come on, he's not quite THAT injury-prone! :D But then, who is? I swear, Bruce Reid had more metal in his back than some computers I've worked on. :D
 

Simon

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Brad williams has been called up to replace gillespie, although i think he will carry the drinks.
bichel, lee, mcgrath and warne will be the attack.
 

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