The white ball wonder

When the cricket equipment manufacturer Kookaburra, describes the composition of their cricket balls, you can almost taste the century of history the company has behind it. “Five layers of cork and worsted yarn” is a phrase that conjures images of Alfred Grace Thompson, a migrant harness maker and Kookaburra’s founder, carefully crafting a cricket ball with the help of his two sons. Add a touch of “first grade alum tanned steer hide cover with finest linen stitching” and you can almost hear the sound of the ball connecting with a cricket bat. (A sound that Kookaburra lay a tongue in cheek claim to patenting.)

Kookaburra provides these wonderful descriptions of its entire range of cricket balls for all surfaces and in all colours and according to the manufacturer there is no discernible difference between the red and white variety of its products. Both are lovingly crafted from identical materials in a mirror image process. The difference, they say is only in the colour applied to the hide of the unfortunate steer.

However, place a white ball in the right hand of Brett Lee and you could be forgiven for thinking that Alfred Thompson had left a bottle of fairy dust in his factory with instructions to add a few drops to each white ball that gently plopped off his Kookaburra production line.

On the night that Brett Lee posted his career best one day figures of 5 for 22 picking up his first five wicket bag against South Africa in the process, it seems an apt time to note that Lee has increasingly of late demonstrated a sublime control of the white ball.

In his last 25 one day outings (including tonight’s game) Lee has claimed 51 wickets at 18.21. An average that is second only to Shane Bond out of the crop of bowlers currently playing one day internationals. (Lee has though played 120 games to Bond’s 40).

But Lee’s effectiveness with a white ball goes beyond numbers. Watching him bowl an opening spell in a one day international is a riveting affair. Provided he has not expended too much energy during his batting exploits, Lee sends down his leather bound missiles with unerring accuracy to match his blistering pace. Given the right conditions he will also demonstrate an ability to swing the new white ball with control, which for a bowler of his pace is a remarkable feat.

You sense Lee is immensely comfortable with both the white ball and his role within the one day side. He is expected to strike knockout blows within his opening burst and that expectation sits well on his athletic shoulders. He frowns in expectation with every ball bowled and looks disappointed if it is not a wicket taking delivery. He blends his armoury of short pitched deliveries and late swinging full pitched balls with magnificent aplomb.

He is a truly masterful one day player that has surfed the wave of ascendancy in recent times. His career best performance against the Proteas in Melbourne should not have been unexpected. He has been steadily asserting himself as Australia’s premier strike bowler and his figures tonight were just reward for a player who gives his heart and soul into each and every delivery. Combine his steadily improving bowling with his rapidly advancing batting and Lee may be claiming rights to be called a genuine all-rounder.

But for his white ball bowling alone, it would be a tough call to suggest that he does not deserve to be credited as the best exponent of white ball pace mastery playing the game today.

Alfred Thompson would be proud.