Dennis Lillee

Dennis Lillee AM MBE (b. 1949), fast bowler, led Australia’s cricketing attack through the 1970s. Raised in Perth, he made his first class debut for Western Australia in 1969–70 and his Test debut against England in 1971. Charismatic and tempestuous, his lush moustache setting off his impenetrable chest hair, he made his long runup against the roared chant of thousands in the crowd. He played his last Test in January 1984 against Pakistan, taking a wicket on the last ball he bowled. At that moment, he held the world record for most Test wickets (355), although many have now bettered his haul. His partnership with wicketkeeper Rod Marsh, which resulted in 95 wickets over 69 matches, is a record that stands. One of the ten inaugural inductees into the Cricket Australia Hall of Fame in 1996, Lillee was inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame in 2009. He was included in the Test Team of the Century named by an expert panel in 2000; his statue stands outside the MCG and a stand at the WACA is named in his (and fellow West Australian Rod Marsh’s) honour. Author of several books on cricket as well as an autobiography, Menace (2003), Lillee is now a bowling coach in international demand.

Bruce Postle (b. 1940) began his photojournalism career at Queensland Country Life and the Brisbane Courier Mail. In 1968 he

moved to the Melbourne Age, where he remained a staff photographer until 1996. The recipient of many press awards, he has fifty photographs in the Hall of Fame at the National Sport Museum at the MCG. His books include A Day in the Life of Australia (1981), Capturing the Moment: Photographs of Australian Sport (1995) and Bruce Postle: The Image Maker (2011). A retrospective exhibition of Postle’s work was mounted by the Monash Gallery of Art in 2013.

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by James Bain AM and Janette Bain 2010
© Bruce Postle