England beware: Lee on the loose

The message to England is simple: watch out because you will be witnessing the genuine article by next month.

I'm not sure how much faith I have in the accuracy of these speed guns. But I do know that Lee is seriously quick and, more importantly, the batsmen who have faced him in his Test career to date are in no doubt about his pace.

England have that little treat to look forward to once the Ashes battle begins.

Lee is a leading contender to be the first bowler officially clocked at 100mph, although he now lies in second place among current players after Pakistan's Shoaib Akhtar was credited with a 97.70mph delivery in Cardiff.

You sort of wonder about the accuracy of those readings some times. Believe me, I'm not just casting doubt because of my 99mph record - I couldn't care less about that. But as an experienced former player, you get a feel for these things by watching the reactions of the batsmen.

Anyway, from Australia's point of view, what matters more than any speed camera is that Lee is looking good so early on his first Ashes tour.

To be fair, I thought there were also plenty of encouraging signs for England yesterday and they could have won but for a bit of bad luck and a lot of Aussie experience.

The bad luck struck when Nick Knight was dismissed for 84 - by another no-ball.

After all the fuss and bother of those no-ball wickets towards the end of England's Second Test against Pakistan, it looks as though we are struggling to get away from umpiring errors at the moment.

It is impossible to say what would have happened, but Knight's exit when well set was clearly a setback for England. And an unnecessary one at that.

People may love or loathe all the different cameras and computers which television companies now use. But, either way, they are here to stay and I can only see life getting harder, rather than easier, for umpires unless cricket allows them to make better use of technology.

Critics argue that the game doesn't need more interruptions.

But it would take only seconds, for example, to check something as simple as whether a bowler has overstepped the line. Surely it's worth it to prevent a batsman being given out incorrectly and to prevent an umpire from being embarrassed.

Knight might have scored another 20 runs yesterday and given England the edge.

Mind you, it's equally possible to speculate Australia would have reached whatever target they were set.

Steve Waugh and his squad are really up for this tournament, make no mistake about that, because they want to keep proving to everyone they are best at both forms of the game.

Much is being made of England's injury problems and there is no doubt they can ill afford to be without the likes of Graham Thorpe, Andy Caddick, Nasser Hussain and Craig White.

But Australia also have some absentees at the moment and, yesterday, they decided to do without Michael Bevan as part of their rotation policy.

Many people regard Bevan as the finest one-day batsman in the world, and perhaps he is on paper. But there are many more players in the squad who can do the job when the heat is on.

In Bristol, Ricky Ponting set up victory with a century and then Steve Waugh and Ian Harvey saw the team safely across the line.

Pressure? What pressure? I suppose the real pressure for these boys is knowing that there are plenty of candidates for their places should they fall below expectations. That helps to concentrate the mind.