MELBOURNE, Feb 2: The South African camp gave a resounding thumbs-up on Thursday to news that Australia would rest in-form strike bowler Brett Lee for their upcoming triangular series clash.

Coach Mickey Arthur, speaking on the eve of the match at Melbourne’s Telstra Dome, described the Australian move as “good news” for the Proteas and said his top-order batsmen would agree.

“I suppose it does release the shackles ... I think there might be one or two happier batters out there when I tell them the news,” Arthur said.

Lee will be rested for the match under the Australian selectors’ policy of giving key players a break throughout the long limited-overs series.

The Australians have already qualified for the best-of-three finals series, but South Africa, although well placed to grab the other spot, must win one of their next two matches against the host nation to seal it.

Sri Lanka, the third nation competing, need Australia to win both matches against the South Africans then defeat the Proteas themselves in the final qualifying fixture in Hobart on Feb 7.

Lee has been in fine form throughout the Australian summer and is his country’s leading wicket-taker in the series with 10 at an average of 23.

He is the fourth Australian player to be rested under the system, with captain Ricky Ponting returning to the side after a week’s break, while pace bowler Glenn McGrath and opener Adam Gilchrist have also had a break.

Ponting said the timing was right for Lee to have a break with the series finals starting on Feb 19 and Australia’s tour of South Africa starting on Feb 24.

“He’s been up for a long time and doing what he does he probably has more stress and physical burn-out than anybody else in the side, so we felt now was an ideal time to give him a rest,” Ponting said.

“You’d like to have Brett in your side all the time, but we’ve got to try to manage the side as well as we can and manage him as well as we can.

“He’s been a great weapon for us in both forms of the game over the last 12 months and we’ve just got to be a little bit careful with him and make sure we are managing him well, and this is another part of that.”

The Australians will bring inexperienced pace bowler Brett Dorey into the attack in

Lee’s place while left-armer Nathan Bracken will also continue to be rested for “personal reasons”.—AFP