England v Australia -Natwest Final- Lords

[greg]

You could put beamer offenders in the stocks and throw rotten fruit at them

[Lemming]

Originally Posted by Victor Frankenstein

he means if you let it go 3/4 of a second early it comes out at beamer height instead of yorker length.

Surely 3/4 of a second earlier, Lee was still about three paces away from his delivery? 3/4 of a second is a long time? Considering it take 0.4 - 0.5 seconds to react to a delivery, those 3/4 of a second would have given Trescothick 1 1/4 seconds to react to the beamer, he could have been 5 yards away knowing that the ball was going to fly over his stumps, or even set himself up for some sort of cut!

[Victor Frankenstein]

pedant in aisle twelve, pedant in aisle twelve, please assist.

[Oliver]

Originally Posted by Seamer

Just like the odd long hop gets bowled, so does the beamer. Can't be avoided. If you bowl two in an innings, you are removed from the attack for the remainder of the innings. This is a fair rule, and what alternitive could we have.

There are a lot more long-hops than beamers... why's that?

I suppose McGrath did get away with a few waist high full-tosses in the last over on Saturday!

Brett Lee is only 28. He hasn't played too much Test cricket (37 matches, around 1200 overs)... it occurs to me that I've seen him bowl an awful lot of beamers... and I don't recall too many (if any) being bowled, so regularly, by "quicks" from the past.

This suggests to me that Lee does it on purpose.

Granted with the ICC disallowing too many bouncers per over, the bowlers art of surprise has been somewhat damaged, but beamers are bloody dangerous at high pace.

I think a fair rule would be to remove the bowler from the team for the entire series if he bowls two head high beamers.

It is unnecessary and possible to avoid.

All Merv Hughes' harping on about: "if you get yer action a bit wrong, it's gonna happen mate" is pure unadulterated rubbish.

It's: "if you do it that way, you'll bowl a beamer."

I'm a swing bowler. I know how to bowl a beamer, a yorker, a ball of full length (with apologies to Christopher Martin-Jenkins) and a long-hop. And granted it's easier when you bowl slower, but I'll bet Brett Lee knows how too.

If he plays in the Tests, he'll bowl some more beamers, and he'll be doing it on purpose.

[Mongoose]

Originally Posted by Oliver

There are a lot more long-hops than beamers... why's that?

Because a long hop is closer to the average delivery than a beamer. I haven't worked it out, but I'm sure if you took the angle of release for the average ball and measured the deviation needed for both a beamer and a long hop, there would be much more deviation from the average needed for a beamer.

[Oliver]

Originally Posted by Mongoose

Because a long hop is closer to the average delivery than a beamer.

Yes, that's true of course... but you're not rolling the ball down your fingers for a yorker, when you're bowling a beamer. You're aiming it at the guys head.

IF you're not doing that, then at least you've set the target in your minds eye, and you've decided not to attempt to hit the deck.

You've done it on purpose.

I think it's jolly hard to do it by accident, unless you're a completely useless bowler, and I've seen plenty of those in Sunday friendly cricket, but they're usually pretty slow.

[Alison]

Originally Posted by Seamer

If you bowl two in an innings, you are removed from the attack for the remainder of the innings. This is a fair rule, and what alternitive could we have.

Do you think there should be anything in place for if someone bowls quite a lot of beamers without bowling more than one in any particular innings? Maybe something along the lines of 'if you bowl x beamers in y months you have to do some remedial work on your action to try and sort whatever problem is causing it out'. This would be without making any sort of claims about whether it was accidental or deliberate.

I don't know what would be appropriate values for x and y by the way, does anyone have any suggestions?

[Richie Benauds Love Child]

At this level regardless of pace, 2 in 12 months. Any old toss pot and try and bowl a yorker and end up doing a beamer if they arent very good, but lee is a test player. any more than 2 and its a ban till you get it right or decide to just stop doing it on purpose.

How many beamers have people seen in the test/ODi arena or county circuit ?? Not many I'll bet.

[Richard Jenkins]

That ball was a deliberate delivery by Lee and If he does bowl in the ashes he'll try it again. I know what the difference is between inswinging yorker and beamer and its a concious decision for the beamer more than 99% of the time. Lee knows too. Anyone who's done a bit of bowling knows.The beamer is when the ball slips out the hand and is never a ball that curves towards the batsman's head at 90 mph, unless deliberate.

Lee needs a serious talking to . Even if it is the 0.01% 'genuine mistake gov'.

[Leafy Seadragon]

I'm in partial agreement with you Richard. I think Lee needs a talking to. I agree entirely with Alison earlier. Whatever the reason its happening, Lee and Australia need to get it sorted out. I'm not convinced that Lee is bowling beamers deliberately. If I had to bet on it, I'd certainly be betting yes, but I think that its a pretty serious label to hrow at anyone, that you are deliberately trying to hit them, with reason to think that it might seriously hurt or even kill them...hmmm.

I think that Lee has a notorious lack of control (see nearly every other post with Lee's name in it). The occasions when the beamer's appeared have been when he's been a bit frustrated, often with specific circumstances, so could reasonably be looking for something special (which doesn't discount either option - deliberate or accident). The limited I know of Lee (interviews and third person accounts) doesn't give me any insight into whether he has anger management issues (surely what we're talking about given the seriousness of the offence).

I do have a serious issue with two aspects. Lee must sort this out. Resolve his issues or get remedial bowling training now, before he plays again. Alternatively, if it really is accidental as he loses control striving for the extra pace on an inswinging yorker, don't bowl that particular delivery or take the edge off the pace when you bowl it.

My biggest criticism I reserve for the Australian Cricket Team management and the ACB. Why the heck haven't they stepped in and told Lee to fix the problem? This is in my opinion unforgivable