Dennis Lillee

At a time when fast bowling was at its richest in the entire Cricket history, Dennis Lillee was the man everyone looked up to. Considered to be the most complete fast bowler, Lillee was one of the key figures in the Australian set up in the 70s and early 80s. He began, as most Australian pacers do, as a tearaway quick bowler. With a classical side-on action and a long run up, Lillee was an instant crowd favourite. Watching a genuinely fast bowler is one of the greatest thrills in cricket and watching Lillee in full flow was the pinnacle. He announced himself in style with eight wickets against a World XI that included the likes of Sir Garfield Sobers and Sunil Gavaskar.

Lillee performed consistently against all teams and was considered to be the best fast bowler of the 70s and arguably the best of all-time. With another fiery pacer, Jeff Thomson, he terrorized batsmen all over the world. The aggressive duo possessed an aura that is still talked about with awe. Like all fast bowlers though, Lillee's career was threatened due to injuries. Multiple stress fractures proved to be the worst of the lot. Lillee took some time off and along with physiotherapy, he worked with sprinter, Austin Roberston on his running technique and returned with an improved action that
could be sustained for long durations without affecting his bowling. The new Lillee made up with guile and change of pace what he lacked in terms of sheer pace. The drop in pace though was not severe.

In 1974-75, when England toured Australia, Lillee was a part of the squad to play a tour game against the visitors. The entire England team was surprised with the change Lillee had undergone. He seemed to be a pale shadow of the fearsome quick who had tormented them earlier. With a run up that was reduced to a quick jog, Lillee was giving the press more to bite into. Ever the showman, Lillee then took everyone by complete surprise in the first Test of the Ashes, when he bowled in full throttle and with Thommo for company, thrashed the hapless England side.

Lillee was also a man of strong opinions off the field. When he felt that cricketers were paid a pittance for the amount they played, he proposed a series that would be only for television with profits going to the players. This suggestion was lapped up by Kerry Packer and the World Series Cricket was born. This infuriated the purists no end but Lillee became the poster boy of the new venture, that would prove to be the pathfinder for Cricket in the coming years.

Lillee prolonged his career with the reduced run up but none of the effectiveness was lost. In the process of picking up his career best figures against West Indies in 1981, Lillee also surpassed Lance
Gibbs' tally of 309 wickets to become the most successful bowler in Test history.

Lillee's career was packed with controversies too. The chief amongst them being his tiff with Javed Miandad and the aluminium bat incident. The former occurred in the first Test against Pakistan at Perth in 1981. Lillee appeared to have ignited the incident when he poked his leg out at Miandad who had ran past him for a single. This angered Miandad no end and he was literally up in arms, waving his bat angrily at Lillee. The pacer himself was not going to back down and took up a boxing stance, ready for what Miandad had to throw at him. The umpire, Tony Crafter, had to throw himself
between the two hot blooded men and prevented them from coming to blows on the field. Lillee attracted widespread criticism from his own countrymen for the incident and was handed a fine and slapped with a two match ban. To this day though, Lillee maintains that it was Miandad who instigated it.

In 1979, Lillee angered the England captain, Mike Brearley and his own captain, Greg Chappell when he walked out with a bat made of aluminium. There were no laws against such bats then. Brearley argued that the bat was causing a lot of damage to the ball and Chappell felt that the bat was costing his team useful runs as it was not as effective as a wooden one. A furious Lillee was thus forced to change bats.

Another controversy that would have caused a furore in present day was the one in 1981, when Lillee and Rod Marsh, along with him who he shared a record number of dismissals by a keeper-bowler combo, bet against their own team and ended up winning a small sum of money as England grasped victory from the jaws of defeat at Headingley. The act was severely condemned by critics but back then match-fixing was not even thought of and the duo had remained amazingly open about the entire issue.

Injuries again caught up with Lillee and he was forced into retirement in 1983. He then played a significant role as the head of Cricket in Western Australia. Lillee also played an invaluable role in grooming young fast bowlers in India as he took up a role in the MRF Pace academy in Chennai. The likes of Zaheer Khan, Irfan Pathan and Ishant Sharma have all passed through his guidance and counselling. In 2009, he was fittingly inducted into the ICC Hall of fame. In September 2012, Lillee made way for Glenn McGrath who was appointed as the director of the MRF pace foundation.

By Ganesh Chandrasekaran