Dr Freemantle and the missing Lillee

Rohit Mahajan

The last few days in Perth have been terribly hot — February is the year’s hottest month here. The presence of the river Swan does little to lessen the heat. The Indian Ocean, washing the west coast of the country and the state, doesn’t seem to have any impact on the heat. The famed Fremantle Doctor — the sea breeze that visits the west coast in the afternoon — seems to have been stilled. We thought a visit to the Freemantle region of the city, to find whether the good doctor Freemantle was all right, was in order. The wind comes to the city from this direction. It turned out that Freemantle was cool enough, with a cool breeze relieving the misery of the tourists and locals on the beach and the streets.

Where’s Lilliee?

Dennis Lillee is the president of the Western Australia Cricket Association. That does seem a bit strange — Dennis Lillee, fearsome and often improperly behaved on the pitch, as the president of a cricket association? That’s quite a surprise. But Lillee is still some sort of a rebel — the three matches of the Perth venue are almost upon us, but Lillee has remained invisible. He’s not seen at the WACA ground. “It’s an honorary position, and he doesn’t have an office at the WACA,” says a WACA spokesperson. A former teammates of Lillee’s, John Lindsey, said: “Dennis is a very significant figure here, and from that perspective it's not about him going to lunches or enjoying the teas… That's not Dennis's style!”