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Brett threat

So the hype has begun again. In the build up to the last major sporting event of the year, Australia are hoping to unveil their new hero.

And so Steve Waugh says he is quicker than Shoaib Akhtar, Mark Waugh says he has never been at slip to anyone like him and Adam Gilchrist thinks he is lightning.

And the young man himself promises to deliver the fastest ball seen in Australia.

Brett Lee is quick, there is no doubt about it. On a relatively mild track at Sydney, he was letting them fly and I can imagine what he must have been like at Perth, where even medium pacers have their ego inflated.

A Boxing Day debut, in front of a huge crowd, would be just the stage for him to deliver a stunning debut performance. And there is no doubt that Australia will play him. Steve Waugh has been looking for extra pace for a while now and he is not going to hold back. A first day track at the MCG against a side not exactly known to stand up to opposition fast bowlers in recent times would be just the right time.

But Lee has a ring of Shoaib to him. "I am not here to bowl outswingers of off cutters," he said and it must cross people’s minds that the last time someone threatened to bowl as fast, he looked a bit silly. The comparison with Shoaib goes further and that is why I think there will be some pressure on Lee.

Australia has sought to take the high ground on clean bowling actions over the last couple of years. Bob Simpson apparently is a hardliner against bent bowling arms and umpires here have almost resembled anti-chucking activists. The media has gone along as well and visiting bowlers with even mildly suspect actions might as well stop applying for visas.

Now that is a wonderful thing as long as it applies uniformly. History has not been kind to people who like one set of laws for themselves and another for others. And that is why I will be very interested in seeing whether Lee comes under scrutiny. Are Australian umpires going to raise the national flag or are they going to carry a banner for clean actions?

At most times, Lee’s action would not even be considered unusual. Fast bowlers have had kinks in their elbows for a long time and one of them, the great Courtney Walsh, is a mere nine wickets away from being the greatest wicket taker of all time. Walsh and Holding might go back a long way together but Walsh’s delivery doesn’t come out of the Holding manual. But he has played with distinction for many years and to a lot of people that is how it should be.

But then Australia took up cudgels against Shoaib and umpires Willey and Hair and match referee Reid thought there were sufficient grounds to report him to the ICC. They reckoned his elbow was straightening sometimes and they wanted another opinion on it. Now, then, if Lee straightens his elbow before delivery, and a lot of people think he does, he should come under the same microscope.

Australian cricket, through its own stringency, is now in an everything to lose situation. Should they uphold the moral ground they have sought to own, and report Lee, it would virtually destroy his career. If they decide not to, and in doing so suggest there is one benchmark for some and one for another, it will almost certainly be embarrassing for them.

Unless of course, Lee bowls very differently, very differently, from the way he bowled in Sydney against India.

If he can bowl with a straight arm he will be a great addition to Australian, and indeed to world cricket and we must wish him luck because the game can do with some fast bowlers. If he cannot, he must go back to the drawing board.

Harsha Bhogle