Wisden overview
If Brett Lee were a Ferrari ... No. There is no if. He is already the fastest in the world, equal with Shoaib Akhtar at a flicker above 100mph, and has the strike rate to be one of the greats. At the 2003 World Cup (during which he took a ferocious hat-trick against Kenya) Lee was a polished star, while Shoaib was a novelty act. When Lee releases the throttle and begins that smooth acceleration, the spectator stays his drinking hand. The leaping, classical delivery may produce a devastating yorker, a devilish slower ball or a young-Donald outswinger. Add a dash of peroxide, a fruity vocabulary, a trademark jump for joy, a stylish bat, a streak of sadism when bowling at tailenders, a pop group (Six And Out), and an endearing dedication to a day job at a gentleman's outfitters, and you have the 21st century's first designer cricketer - not to mention a priceless pin-up boy. Australia just have to count the children in Brett Lee shirts to know his value, and Steve Waugh has nurtured him well - the unruly incisor to McGrath's molar. It hasn't all been easy: Lee has struggled against accusations of throwing and stress fracture after stress fracture, and he had a strangely barren first Ashes series in 2001. But already he seems naked without the baggy green cap - and the world's best team seems a little less fearsome without him. Tanya Aldred

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