Menace: The Autobiography

click here for more details, find new or used items	Dennis Lillee New from £9.99 Used from £0.84 Pages: 352 (Hardcover) ISBN: 0755311264 Pub: Headline Book Publishing Pub date: 2003-05-19 Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 584796

Reader Reviews:

Lillee reflects (0/0 people found this helpful)

The life story of one of the game’s greatest fast bowlers and characters faithfully chronicles Lillee’s ups and downs, but doesn’t dwell on the statistics.

Best parts are the tales of his battles with us Poms, especially the now infamous tale of the 500-1 bet at Headingly in 1981. Lillee wasn’t much impressed with Botham’s 149 that day, but was full of praise for Willis’s 8 second innings wickets. No doubt the fast bowlers union sticking together. One of the more interesting sections is his look at the Packer Affair and his part in it, which was bigger than I was aware of. Inevitably the tastier parts concern conflict and that’s dealt with in the aluminium bat affair and the trouble with Javed Miandad. The risks to his career such as the back injury that nearly finished it before it had really taken off is also interesting reading. We also have the obligatory stories of the goings on behind the scenes such as Rod Marsh’s attempt to break the boozing record during a flight to England and the eccentric ways of Doug Walters. Funnily enough (for an Aussie), Lillee doesn’t seem to be a big drinker.

Lillee doesn’t do a whitewash job though. If he feels something was wrong then he’ll say so, such as his reaction to Trevor Chappell’s underarm ball in a one-day game against New Zealand.

There are also plenty of insights into the Aussie mentality, especially how the Chappell brothers motivated him and others. Since being out of the public eye as a player Lillee has done a lot of work in India coaching fast bowlers and setting up a training system to encourage them.

Overall this is a solid, if not spectacular autobiography. It’s a bit more restrained than I expected and I was expecting it to be a touch more abrasive. There are no old scores being settled between the covers and Lillee comes across as cooler than his fiery image suggests. Maybe that's down to the ghostwriter. It’s entertaining enough and a must for every cricket lovers library.

A Menace to Read (0/0 people found this helpful)

Unfortunately the book falls into the age old trap of trailing us around the cricket world through the eyes of a massive ego who could do no wrong. In the book Lillee places himself in the centre of most recent events in world cricket. His views on a variety of subjects are tacked on as some form of afterthought and indeed without much thought at that. A disappointment if truth be told.

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