The Shane Lee Column

I HAVE been totally drained this week - and not just through watching my fellow countrymen at Edgbaston.

My flatmate Brad McNamara, the Haslingden professional, and I have been on a high protein diet this week, something the rugby league guys back home use a lot.

Cooking duties - fish, tuna, chicken, pork and good lean cuts of steak -have again fallen on my shoulders as Brad remains useless in the kitchen.

The idea is that if the body is just getting protein and so has been burning up any excess fat during our twice-daily trips to the gym.

I will be the first cricketer in the leagues to return home from a season in the leagues and have lost weight!

But because you are not eating carbohydrate or salad or even drinking orange juice, it means you feel wasted.

Then, yesterday, we pigged out on pasta to get our energy levels back up, ready for today's game.

This is an important weekend for my side Enfield.

Last week's defeat against Rishton was SO disappointing.

It was a good wicket and we bowled really well to keep them down to 150.

Even if the batting pro gets out early, you should at least be able to get that kind of score.

The guys recognise that because they have been used to a bowling pro but they aren't firing at the moment and we fell eight runs short.

I have had to have a sit down with a few of them at training to see what's what.

We play Ramsbottom today in the replayed game when I hit 125 not out only for it to be wiped off the records - the first time I have lost runs. Chris Harris wasn't playing in that game and I know he bowls well in these conditions.

It would be nice to repeat my personal performance as we are the featured game again in this newspaper on Monday.

Well, I have put it off for long enough...on to Edgbaston matters.

England are outplaying us at the moment and it's as simple as that.

You guys bowled exceptionally and some of Darren Gough's deliveries on the first morning were just unplayable.

I mentioned previously that Graham Thorpe would be a key man in the series. And Nasser Hussain is also a quality player.

He has especially soft hands - a bit like Mark Waugh - which is the correct technique when the ball is moving around.

But England have taken the initiative, have gained momentum and the way Australia are playing at the moment they are not going to win too many games.

Mark Taylor needed runs in the second innings and, if anything, there was more pressure on the batting.

But, even if he were not to be selected for the next Test, Steve Waugh is an ideal replacement and we would not be losing too much from a captaincy point of view.

The very fact that England were talked about as the seventh strongest Test side going into this series shows how quickly things can change in cricket. I hope!

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.