dennis lillee Profile - ICC Profile, Age, Career Info & Stats.
dennis lillee is a cricketer(sportsman) from Australia. His ICC profile, age, career info & stats are given below.
Full Name
Dennis Keith Lillee
Born
July 18, 1949, Subiaco, Perth, Western Australia
Age
74 years old
Batting Style
Right hand Bat
Bowling Style
Right arm Fast
Playing Role
Bowler
Batting Stats
Test | ODI | T20I | IPL | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Mat | 70 | 63 | - | - |
Inn | 90 | 34 | - | - |
Runs | 905 | 240 | - | - |
Avg | 13.71 | 9.23 | - | - |
SR | 38.82 | 75.0 | - | - |
HS | 73 | 42 | - | - |
NO | 24 | 8 | - | - |
100s | 0 | 0 | - | - |
50s | 1 | 0 | - | - |
4s | 96 | 17 | - | - |
6s | 8 | 1 | - | - |
Bowling Stats
Test | ODI | T20I | IPL | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Mat | 70 | 63 | - | - |
Inn | 132 | 63 | - | - |
Balls | 17017 | 3577 | - | - |
Runs | 8493 | 2145 | - | - |
Wkt | 355 | 103 | - | - |
BBI | 83 / 7 | 34 / 5 | - | - |
BBM | 123 / 11 | 34 / 5 | - | - |
Eco | 2.99 | 3.6 | - | - |
Avg | 23.92 | 20.83 | - | - |
5W | 23 | 1 | - | - |
10W | 7 | 0 | - | - |
Teams he has played for:
- Australia
- Northamptonshire
- Tasmania
- Western Australia
Heres what CricBuzz says about him.
Lillee performed consistently against all teams and was considered to be the best fast bowler of the 70s and arguably the best of all-time. With another fiery pacer, Jeff Thomson, he terrorized batsmen all over the world. The aggressive duo possessed an aura that is still talked about with awe. Like all fast bowlers though, Lillee's career was threatened due to injuries. Multiple stress fractures proved to be the worst of the lot. Lillee took some time off and along with physiotherapy, he worked with sprinter, Austin Roberston on his running technique and returned with an improved action that
could be sustained for long durations without affecting his bowling. The new Lillee made up with guile and change of pace what he lacked in terms of sheer pace. The drop in pace though was not severe.
In 1974-75, when England toured Australia, Lillee was a part of the squad to play a tour game against the visitors. The entire England team was surprised with the change Lillee had undergone. He seemed to be a pale shadow of the fearsome quick who had tormented them earlier. With a run up that was reduced to a quick jog, Lillee was giving the press more to bite into. Ever the showman, Lillee then took everyone by complete surprise in the first Test of the Ashes, when he bowled in full throttle and with Thommo for company, thrashed the hapless England side.
Lillee was also a man of strong opinions off the field. When he felt that cricketers were paid a pittance for the amount they played, he proposed a series that would be only for television with profits going to the players. This suggestion was lapped up by Kerry Packer and the World Series Cricket was born. This infuriated the purists no end but Lillee became the poster boy of the new venture, that would prove to be the pathfinder for Cricket in the coming years.
Lillee prolonged his career with the reduced run up but none of the effectiveness was lost. In the process of picking up his career best figures against West Indies in 1981, Lillee also surpassed Lance
Gibbs' tally of 309 wickets to become the most successful bowler in Test history.
Lillee's career was packed with controversies too. The chief amongst them being his tiff with Javed Miandad and the aluminium bat incident. The former occurred in the first Test against Pakistan at Perth in 1981. Lillee appeared to have ignited the incident when he poked his leg out at Miandad who had ran past him for a single. This angered Miandad no end and he was literally up in arms, waving his bat angrily at Lillee. The pacer himself was not going to back down and took up a boxing stance, ready for what Miandad had to throw at him. The umpire, Tony Crafter, had to throw himself
between the two hot blooded men and prevented them from coming to blows on the field. Lillee attracted widespread criticism from his own countrymen for the incident and was handed a fine and slapped with a two match ban. To this day though, Lillee maintains that it was Miandad who instigated it.
In 1979, Lillee angered the England captain, Mike Brearley and his own captain, Greg Chappell when he walked out with a bat made of aluminium. There were no laws against such bats then. Brearley argued that the bat was causing a lot of damage to the ball and Chappell felt that the bat was costing his team useful runs as it was not as effective as a wooden one. A furious Lillee was thus forced to change bats.
Another controversy that would have caused a furore in present day was the one in 1981, when Lillee and Rod Marsh, along with him who he shared a record number of dismissals by a keeper-bowler combo, bet against their own team and ended up winning a small sum of money as England grasped victory from the jaws of defeat at Headingley. The act was severely condemned by critics but back then match-fixing was not even thought of and the duo had remained amazingly open about the entire issue.
Injuries again caught up with Lillee and he was forced into retirement in 1983. He then played a significant role as the head of Cricket in Western Australia. Lillee also played an invaluable role in grooming young fast bowlers in India as he took up a role in the MRF Pace academy in Chennai. The likes of Zaheer Khan, Irfan Pathan and Ishant Sharma have all passed through his guidance and counselling. In 2009, he was fittingly inducted into the ICC Hall of fame. In September 2012, Lillee made way for Glenn McGrath who was appointed as the director of the MRF pace foundation.
By Ganesh Chandrasekaran
Heres what ESPNcricinfo says about him.
Dennis Lillee, considered by many to have been "the complete fast bowler", was the heart of Australia's attack for more than a decade. Through a combination of ability, showmanship, a copybook action, and sheer hard work he won the loyal following of the nation's crowds, who often roared his name as he ran in to bowl. Lillee repaid their faith with interest - he was the type of character whom captains could rely on to bowl "one more over" at the end of a long spell, and the sort who often made breakthroughs when success seemed unlikely.
Lillee broke Lance Gibbs' world record of 309 Test wickets and finished with 355 dismissals from just 70 matches to underline his status as one of the all-time greats. Since retirement he has retained a high profile through his commitment to developing new generations of fast bowlers.
When Lillee came on to the international scene, he bowled with frightening pace. In December 1971 he decimated a powerful World XI side in Perth, taking 8 for 29 in the first innings, and he claimed 31 Test wickets at 17.67 during the 1972 Ashes tour. Many believed his career was over after he broke down with spinal stress fractures the following year, but Lillee made a famous recovery following a regime of intensive physiotherapy.
In the mid-1970s he was teamed up with express paceman Jeff Thomson. They became the most feared bowling pairing of the era and inflicted great damage on England: rattling the tourists' batters in the 1974-75 series in Australia; and then setting up (with Max Walker) an away series win a few months later in the first Test at Edgbaston.
Throughout his career Lillee also had a superb partner behind the stumps in wicketkeeper Rod Marsh. The dismissal "caught Marsh, bowled Lillee" appears 95 times on Test cards, a record pairing that has yet to be seriously challenged.
After his match-shaping performance in the 1977 Centenary Test against England, Australia's Test team temporarily lost Lillee's services to World Series Cricket. During this time, he continued to work on his fitness, and honed the efficiency of his approach and delivery action.
Further fine performances after his return to Test cricket and through to the early 1980s reflected Lillee's increased ability to outwit batters. He had lost some of the pace of his youth but continued to exploit batters' weaknesses, utilising clever variations in length, pace and movement.
His best Test figures were achieved in a remarkable match against West Indies in 1981. To the delight of the MCG crowd, Lillee sent opener Desmond Haynes and nightwatcher Colin Croft back to the pavilion late on day one, and then bowled Vivian Richards to leave the tourists stunned at 10 for 4 at stumps. Lillee - who broke Gibbs' record with Larry Gomes' dismissal the following day - ended up with 7 for 83 in the first innings and ten wickets for the match, and Australia recorded a famous upset win.
Lillee, who was named in Australia's Test team of the 20th century and the national Hall of Fame, now has an international reputation as a fast-bowling coach. He also continued to bowl for the ACB Chairman's XI against touring sides till 1999-2000.