Can he clock 150? Why Dennis Lillee broke his own rule to mentor Aussie youngster

Thud ... thwack ... thump. For hours on end at a family friend’s property in the Margaret River town of Cowaramup, about five years ago, a high school kid fired tape ball deliveries at a bin along the gravel laneway down the side of the house.

Alerted by the noise and going to take a look, winemaker Max Montgomery saw that the kid, Mahli Beardman, had what seemed to him to be genuine speed. He called another friend, Rod Duggan, who in turn contacted none other than Dennis Lillee to ask if he would take a look at Beardman.

Mahli Beardman celebrates an Indian wicket in this year’s under-19 World Cup in South Africa.Credit: Getty Images

Initially, Lillee said no. Customarily, working with the likes of Mitchell Johnson and Pat Cummins, Lillee preferred to wait until a junior cricketer was well into puberty, having grown enough to develop the kernel of their own bowling action.

When this was relayed to Beardman, he was annoyed, impatient. Four more years until he was 16 or 17 – it felt like a lifetime away. After all, Beardman had been eight years old when the summer of Mitchell Johnson first inspired him to bowl fast.

A couple of seasons passed, and more word got through to Lillee. Beardman, now nearing 15, was worth his time. They met at the nets in South Perth.

“Typical Dennis style, in thongs and a T-shirt and boardies,” Beardman told the Bray and Ethan podcast of his first meeting with Lillee. “So I walked down to the nets, grabbed a ball and went from there. Got along with him really well and he was pretty happy with what he saw and was happy to start working with me from then on.”

So began an association that has helped Beardman make his name as one of the most promising, and certainly fastest, young quicks in the country. At 19, with only one List A game behind him, he has been invited to join Australia’s 50-over squad currently in England. Beardman is unlikely to play, but his inclusion as a project bowler speaks volumes both for his ability, and for Lillee’s eye.

“Every couple of months I’ll go down and have a net bowl with him, and I won’t go more than two or three weeks without calling him and chatting through some stuff,” Beardman said. “He’s such a great man, with so much knowledge and wisdom. Just been feeding off him for the last four or five years, which has been unbelievable.

“People ask, ‘How do you do it?’ or, ‘Is it a natural thing or something you can learn?’ I think you just have to have it from the start. It’s one of those things, either you have fast-twitch fibres and throw the ball quick, or you don’t. When I’m bowling my best too, I’m not even thinking about bowling quick. That’s just a lucky genetic thing.”

Lillee has worked as much on mentality as technique, instilling the fact that bowling fast is an unrelenting pastime, requiring strength of will and hardness of mind as well as body. The chess game with the batter has also been part of Beardman’s training.

Dennis Lillee celebrates Viv Richards’ wicket at the MCG on Boxing Day 1981.Credit: The Age

“From ‘DK’ I learnt a lot of mental stuff and tried to implement that as much as I can [at this year’s World Cup],” Beardman said. “He got me thinking about my bowling instead of just bowling, thinking about my field setting and then from there working on mental things – little cues like going head, and then going toes next ball.”

Already, Beardman’s speed has been clocked in the 145km/h range. With more time in the gym and greater durability after a series of back issues during his teens, he has predicted it will be possible to go beyond 150km/h.

Either way, Beardman’s speed and steep trajectory has already earned comparisons with Cummins, another Lillee pupil who was first picked for Australia in his teens. During the under-19 World Cup, Beardman was designated first change bowler for the team that went on to win the trophy by beating India in the final. His response was to model his overs and spells on those delivered by Cummins from the same position.

“That’s an honour in itself being compared to Pat. But I’d love to try to emulate him when I bowl,” Beardman said. “Especially when I bowled a lot at first change in the World Cup, which was different for me, I’d always normally taken the new rock.

“I look back on a lot of Pat’s spells at first change ... and tried to plan and structure my overs how he did. He was a big inspiration for the World Cup and I think moving forward ... I’m going to bowl first or second change a lot too. So I’m going to try to emulate how Pat bowls.”

Beardman, his mentors in Western Australia and talent spotters around the country were stunned by the call to fly him to England so soon. Earlier in the year, he had predicted a fairly ordered progression – provided he performed – from state and Big Bash duty to the national team one day.

At the World Cup, the head coach Anthony Clark dubbed Beardman an Alfa Romeo, because “I’m quick and I look good, but I’m in the workshop a lot”. Cummins was once referred to as a “Ferrari engine in a Corolla chassis”. Building up Beardman’s body will take time and is far from guaranteed to succeed – just ask his WA seniors Lance Morris and Jhye Richardson.

But Australia’s selectors find themselves at a similar juncture to the time when, about 15 years ago, the next great generation of players seemed hard to locate. In the space of a couple of years, they called up David Warner, Steve Smith, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon and Cummins – still the core of the team, but now an ageing one.

For Beardman and others like fellow West Australian Cooper Connolly, the door is now tantalisingly open. But the bin and the laneway helped.

News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport are sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.