Today's pounding from Kieron Pollard notwithstanding, Brett Lee's ongoing performances for Australia in the West Indies made me wonder where he appears on the all-time wicket-taking table for matches between the two teams. In Tests, the list is predictably headed by Courtney Walsh (135), Curtly Ambrose (128) and Glenn McGrath (110), although the former played eleven more games (38 in total) than his nearest rival. Lee stands well behind on 64 but given that these came in only 12 Tests, he has one of the best strike rates of any bowler in the history of Aussie-Windies cricket.
At the age of 35, he will probably never play the five-day stuff again. However, he has 215 ODIs under his belt, and today is his 26th against the West Indies. With 46 wickets so far, he is seventh on the list. Again, his strength has been his breakthrough bowling, taking a wicket every 28 balls or so which, as in Tests, is one of the best of any player, including the likes of Roberts, Lillee, Garner, Warne et al. His average of 22 is pretty good, too, but economy is not one of his better qualities, and Pollard's innings today hasn't helped! At 4.7 an over against the West Indies, he is an expensive asset but, when bowling with the likes of McGrath, it didn't matter that much.
Shane Warne has taken 50 but the top wicket taker in ODIs between the two teams is perhaps surprising. Neither Walsh, Ambrose, McGrath, nor Holding but Craig McDermott! Often an unsung hero of the Aussie attack in the '80s and '90s, the paceman bridged the eras of Lillee and McGrath, taking 291 Test wickets and just over 200 in ODIs. Of those, 63 came against the Windies in 35 matches. His average of 19.45 is superior to everyone other than Nathan Bracken or Len Pascoe, too.
At the time of writing, the Windies innings has just ended with Brett Lee still one short of Malcolm Marshall, who tended to save his best performances for Test cricket. I've always liked Brett Lee as a cricketer, not only as a very fast bowler back in the day. He is a thinker, a useful outfielder and plays the game in the right way, too. We should cherish his performances on the international scene while we still can. Given Australian seamers' current injury woes, that could be for a few more years yet!
