Analysing Dennis Lillee's career before and after his serious injury

Lillee remained a fearsome bowler even after his career threatening injury

Dennis Lillee, as Gideon Haigh says, is the reason the collective noun for bowlers on a team is ‘attack’ and not ‘defence’. And few people outside those tiny dots on the map in the Caribbean Sea would dare disagree. In a career spanning thirteen years, Lillee terrorized opposition batsmen in a way the world had never seen before.

After bursting onto the world scene in the 1970-71 Ashes, Lillee bowled at an express pace till the February of 1973 when, bowling against a strong West Indies side, he suffered a stress fracture in his lower vertebrae. Most thought that this injury would rob Lillee of his pace thus rendering him harmless. They were right. He did lose his pace, but he remained as fearsome as ever. We can divide his career into two halves, before and after the injury.

A prolific start to his Test career

Lillee played 11 of his 70 Tests before this injury. On his Test debut against England, Lillee picked up five wickets at an excellent strike rate of 56.6. However, it was the Manchester Test in the summer of 72’ that Lillee truly proved his mettle. After a couple of wickets in the first innings, Lillee went through the English batting in the second innings like a hot knife through butter. He finished the inning with six wickets.

Still, that wasn’t to be his best of the series. Going into the final Test, Australia were facing the indignity of consecutive Ashes losses. Lillee, however, had different plans. He ended with match figures of 10/181 at an astounding strike rate of 34 thereby allowing his country to salvage the series. More wickets followed when Pakistan toured Australia later in the year. Lillee looked primed to dominate fast bowling for years to come.

Lillee continued to strike fear into the batsman on his return from injury

The injury to the back caused many to speculate that his career was over. He underwent intensive physiotherapy with a sports scientist who helped him remodel his action for a year and a half. His comeback was complete in late 1974 when, along with Jeff Thompson, Lillee helped Australia to a comfortable 4-1 series win.

A memorable Adelaide Test saw Lillee pick up 8 wickets for 118 runs. The Lillee-Thompson duo forged at the start of this series is, even today, considered to be one of the finest the game has seen. The author of this article can surely be forgiven for thinking that the cliché about fast bowlers hunting in packs had its genesis sometime around this series.

Lillee also forged a world beating partnership with Rodney Marsh, the Australian wicketkeeper. The 95 times “caught Marsh bowled Lillee” appeared on scorecards is actually a record in Test cricket.

Lillee went on to take ten wickets in a Test on six separate occasions in the post-injury period with his best coming against New Zealand in 1977 when he picked up 11/123. It was against the West Indies on Boxing Day in 1981 that Lillee broke Lance Gibbs’ record for Test wickets surpassing the 309 mark when he induced an edge from Larry Gomes. He would end up with a respectable 355 Test wickets.

A lively & controversial character on the field

Dennis Lillee was famous for his outspoken views and was embroiled in a number of controversies in his playing career. His use of an aluminum bat in an Ashes Test in 1979 actually caused the authorities to amend laws regarding composition of bats. When instructed to change bats by the umpires at the game, Lillee, in a fit of anger, flung his metal bat towards the pavilion.

He was also involved in an unpleasant confrontation with Pakistani batsman Javed Miandad when the latter collided with him while taking a run. The pair was at loggerheads and threatening violence and had to be separated by the officials present. Lillee was later fined and banned for a couple of games by the Australian Cricket Board.