Brett Lee has revealed a secret ritual that Australian Test cricketers have to celebrate victories at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
Lee told SEN Radio that there is a secret cellar under the home team’s changing rooms at the SCG – stocked with wine and beer – and the team heads there after a win.
He said access was via a special knock – three times on the cellar door with a cricket bat.
The knock is then reciprocated by ground staff when they are ready to welcome the players downstairs.
“At the Sydney Cricket Ground, a lot of people don’t know this and I’m giving away a little bit of inside knowledge here,” Lee told SEN.
Australian cricketer Brett Lee addresses media representatives at a press conference to announce his retirement from International Cricket at the SCG on July 13, 2012 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)
“We’re in that inner sanctum where we feel comfortable, where there’s no press and we can relax and just speak honestly and openly.
“After the Test win at the SCG, the tradition is you’ll get a cricket bat and go on the floor (and do) three taps.
“Then a few minutes later you hear ‘Tap, tap, tap’, from someone downstairs, which is a cellar which means, ‘Come downstairs to the cellar’.
“You walk down underneath the changerooms of the Australian players, and you walk inside and it’s only about this big (small) … so we reckon it’s Justin Langer’s house because he fits in beautifully (laughs).
“There’s a door that’s been signed by every Test cricketer, I think since the 1950s that’s in there.
“I probably shouldn’t be saying too much about this, but it’s a cellar so there’s beers and wine.”
Lee said the team shared a drink with the SCG workers.
“You get down there and have a chat with some of the ground staff and have a cold beer with them,” Lee said.
“I thought, ‘How good is this Test cricket stuff’. It’s the tradition knowing that the likes of Bradman have done it, the heroes, the Allan Borders and Merv Hughes.”
Jordan Silk, of the Sydney Sixers, said he had never been invited to the cellar despite winning BBL titles at the SCG.
“No (I haven’t been to the cellar),,” Silk told SEN 1170 Breakfast.
“It was a great yarn and I have heard of it (the cellar). I mean, we’ve won a couple of Big Bash titles at the SCG, but we haven’t had the privilege of getting down there, unfortunately.
“It sounds amazing. I’d love to see it one day. You don’t get to hear that inner sanctum stuff too often.”