Bowling brothers support Lee

Brett Lee's pace teammates may be fighting to keep him out of the Test side, but the incumbent trio is united in defending him in the beamers controversy. While Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie added their views to the on-purpose versus accidental debate, Lee believed the uproar over his waist-high full toss would not affect his push for a Test return.

"I know there's a lot of talk from a few journos back home and obviously I've copped a fair bit over here," Lee told the Sydney Morning Herald. "I wasn't under any pressure [on Tuesday] to go out there and prove anything. I had nothing to do anything different."

Lee's teammates encouraged him to remain aggressive despite the criticism from John Bracewell, the New Zealand coach, and former players such as Rodney Hogg. "If Brett was fair dinkum and wanted to hit someone, they would be at the throat but they're down at the waist," Gillespie said. McGrath told the newspaper he was unhappy with the way Lee had been viewed in Australia, but "you expect it from the New Zealanders".

The four bowlers named in the 13-man Test squad are jostling for three positions in the first Test at Christchurch, which starts next Thursday, and the condition of the wicket is likely to determine who misses out. "We want to keep this four going forward for the Ashes and for a couple more years to come," Lee said. "We want to make this our group."

Trevor Hohns, the chairman of selectors, hinted yesterday that Lee was not an automatic selection despite his intimidating one-day form and McGrath said that the only difference between the four bowlers was that Kasprowicz didn't have a Test half-century. "Only one of us doesn't dye his hair," was the quick reply of Kasprowicz, whose top score is 25.