The last week has witnessed the retirements of three great cricketers, marking the end of an era in batting, wicketkeeping and now the art of fast bowling. First it was Mark Ramprakash, then Mark Boucher and now Brett Lee. It was sad that the Aussie called it a day after a torn calf muscle ended his participation in a lost match to England, but it's probably the right decision for a man who has injured just every part of his body during a 17-year career.
OK, so he still intends to play T20 but this is it for proper cricket. And what a career it has been. His international stint was launched in the Boxing Day Test of 1999 against India, beginning with a 5-for and the wicket of Rahul Dravid in each innings. His ODI debut a few weeks later versus Pakistan was wicketless but it was as a stump-rattling strike bowler that made Brett Lee such a fearsome proposition. He may have been hit about a few times, and was more expensive than the likes of Glenn McGrath or indeed any other top bowler of the past 25 years but his strike rate in both Tests and ODIs is up there with the best, if not THE best in the 50-over game.
He was famously recorded as bowling a delivery at a shade under 100mph, the second fastest in history, but his smooth classic action enabled him to bowl at pace for many years, even if injury and age diminished the speed a bit in his 30s. He struck quite a few batsmen some nasty blows along the way, including Kallis and Chanderpaul, and even had Alex Tudor stretchered off, but he seemed a genuinely nice guy. Unlike many of his great team-mates, he often played with a smile on his face albeit with a steely determination and competitive will to win.
Therefore it is ironic that the most famous photo of him is as a loser, sunken on his hunches grasping his bat and consoled by Andrew Flintoff at Edgbaston in 2005 after almost pulling off a remarkable Ashes victory with the bat. Three more runs and history would have been rewritten. He never scored a century - 97 was his top score - but he contributed useful late-order runs and once heaved a delivery over the Gabba grandstand playing the Windies. His average of 20 in Test is admirable for a strike bowler and his scoring rate in ODIs is a hefty 84, even if his innings usually came when quick runs were required to set or reach a target.
Whether in the baggy green or the purple of KKR Brett Lee was also an excellent outfielder, chasing lost causes along the boundary rope and flingnig deadly accurate throws to the stumps. He didn't drop many catches either.
So he departs the international scene with 310 Test wickets, 380 in ODIs (the sixth highest in history and level with McGrath for Australia) and 28 in T20Is. Who knows how many more victims he'd have claimed had it not been for those injuries? However, he has been a popular cricketer around the world for many years, even amongst the Poms, recognised for being hard but fair and playing the sport in the right spirit. There aren't many like Brett Lee and he will be missed.
