lee's going to the dogs

Lee - fast bowler and champion greyhound.

Related Links

Click here for more from Dave Tickner

By Dave Tickner

Barring a couple of ill-starred trips to Peterborough dog track in my youth, my interest in greyhound racing extends precisely as far as Santa's Little Helper being rubbish at it in The Simpsons.

Until they get tiny jockeys involved, I'm not interested.

But my ears pricked up this morning when our greyhound desk announced: "Former prolific open race winner Star of Dromin has whelped a litter of seven pups to Australian star Brett Lee."

Now, sniffing a scoop but fearing a libel action, I enquired further. Lee has already announced his intentions to play in the first Test even though his wife Liz is expecting their first child and it is due on the eve of the game.

Would a litter of greyhound pups provoke the same response?

Turns out Brett Lee is not, in this case, the New South Wales quick who so nearly snatched victory at Edgbaston last summer, but rather an Australian greyhound.

And a pretty good one, apparently. One website proclaims him "the fastest dog in the world" and to these untrained eyes the list of races and, more revealingly, money he's won certainly seems impressive.

While it obviously makes sense to name a greyhound - an animal essentially bred for speed - after a fast bowler, I can't help but feel there are more fun options.

I for one would happily fritter away a week's wages on a dog called Robert Key or Ian Austin. Replace the hare with a piece of mature cheddar and watch Mike Gatting go!

Jack Russell would show a certain wit, but surely the time has come for some enterprising breeder somewhere to saddle his prize pup with the proud moniker Inzamam-ul-Haq.