WACA Day Two: In the name of Dennis

Submitted by Rick Eyre on December 21 2009, 9:26 pm

On Thursday, day two of the WACA Test against the West Indies, Dennis Lillee was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. Chris Gayle celebrated by smashing the ball onto the roof of his grandstand.

The six landing on the top of the Lillee Marsh Stand was just part of the West Indian captain's tribute to one of Dennis Lillee's greatest nightmares by reaching his century from 70 balls, one less than the late Roy Fredericks did in his superb knock in the Perth Test of this series in 1975. Fredericks (later seen memorably giving Lillee a rude gesture in a fingerless batting glove in the WSC Come On Aussie Come On ad) went on to make 169 as the West Indies completed an innings victory. Gayle conked out at 102, and victory looks less likely in 2009.

There was another highly moving tribute to the life and legacy of Dennis Keith Lillee played out earlier in the day during the Australian innings, when Sulieman Benn and Brad Haddin re-enacted the great DKL-Javed Miandad contretemps of 1981 with some additional support from Mitchell Johnson.

Tis a pity that this current Australian team does so little to dignify the memory of the great FOT's golden era of the 1970s.