Could Brett Lee be sued if beamers continue?

John Bracewell, the New Zealand coach, has warned that Brett Lee might face legal action if he delivered a beamer on Australian soil. In the third one-day international between New Zealand and Australia Lee bowled a beamer to Brendon McCullum. "It is the fourth time this season that he's beamed one of our guys. He's been apologetic every time he's done it," Bracewell is quoted as saying by the ABC website.

"He was apologetic when he came round the wicket and did it to Chris Harris, and Paul Wiseman, and he's apologised twice to Brendon," said Bracewell. "I'm not sure if he apologised to [Abdul] Razzaq. That's a lot of apologies."

Bracewell believes that Lee could become the first cricketer to be taken to court for bowling a beamer following a recent incident that occurred in rugby league. Jarrod McCracken successfully sued the Melbourne Storm club, and their players Steve Kearney and Marcus Bai, for damages after his career was ended by a spear tackle. "I think it's going to be more serious if it happens in Australia with the Jarrod McCracken call, if it does hit somebody," said Bracewell. "That's Australian law, the precedent's been set there which is pretty dangerous for your country, not mine."

Lee, who apologised to McCullum after the offending delivery, has said, "Unfortunately the ball came out and it hit him, thank God it didn't hurt him," Lee said. "I know when I was beamed accidentally by Razzaq, your first impression is to go crazy. He [McCullum] lost it there for 15-20 seconds and I went up and apologised and said 'I would never mean to do that'."