Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], July 13 : Former Australian cricketer Brett Lee in a recent interview revealed that raw pace doesn't always get you wickets. During his international career, Lee was recognised as one of the fastest bowlers in the world.
During his time representing Australia, Lee won multiple ICC titles with the team: the 2003 Cricket World Cup, the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy, and the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy.
In a recent interview on Home of Heroes on Jio Cinema, Brett Lee said, "I think playing at a higher level. Raw pace doesn't always get wickets. So, it works maybe at a shield level. Definitely at first-grade level because it scared the tripe out of them. Yeah, but when you're playing against guys like you, Sachin, Laxman, Brian Lara and Jacques Kallis and all that, pace is still very important, but there are guys that love to play the shot that aren't scared. Well, I need to be a bit more stringent here. I need to work on other skills, not just short or yorker - how to work on hitting a length but bowling next to Glenn. He without even trying to, educated me because I was watching him at the other end. So, okay, that's how he gets his wickets. He's patient."
Brett Lee has played under the captaincy of Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting. He shared his experience while playing under two different captains.
Brett Lee said, "Totally different. Steve Waugh, his philosophy was to use me a lot differently. So I was used as a shock bowler. Which was exactly what he was trying to do. Like bring me on, he said - I don't care if you go for 40 runs of four overs if you get us a wicket, get a breakthrough that's going to set us up to crack open that middle order and then you get the wicket and the captain’s happy, the coaches happy. But when you look up at your figures on the board or the next time that the selection camera and they've gone through the numbers, it didn't play as pretty as what it should because you know I've got one for forty of six overs. You know they go on about why is his economy so high but in context, I was doing the job I was asked to do. But yeah, I mean he was great to play for obviously someone that I looked up to under Steve Waugh."
He added, "I think it would have been Ricky Ponting that got the best out of myself under his guidance and I think the reason why was because he understood my game more than Steve. So, I really enjoyed playing on both, but I certainly enjoyed playing under Pointing. Great man the manager. You know, the type of guy that would have the hard conversation, very transparent, say, look, you are not playing tomorrow because this, this, this if you do this, get back in the sport, work on your fitness, work hard on you, get your ankles right, whatever it might be. But publicly would support me, never he'd never say anything bad about his players publicly. Whereas I've played under other captains that you know, and I'd probably say one thing to the public and one thing to you I don't necessarily always agree with."
Brett Lee wore jersey number 58 for Australia. When asked about his story behing the number 58 he said, "My lucky number is eight, born on the eighth, I lived at number eight. That was the house number that I lived in. I always say at one stage of my life I turned eight. And then when I was going into the New South Wales cricket team, eight was taken and so was five. So, I combined both I love five and eight. So, I combine the two fifty-eight. It's funny how that becomes your number and you know obviously with playing for India that you almost become part of that number."
Brett Lee missed the ICC World Cup 2007 due to an injury. While elaborating on it he said, "Yeah, we were training in Auckland, I think it was. We were meant to leave the following week to go over to the West Indies and I remember saying to our coach at that stage, I'm not keen to field today, It's a bit greasy, a bit wet been a bit of morning rain, been raining the whole morning and we end up getting on. I'm like when your brain tells you something's not right. My gut tells me. And I should have listened to my gut and there were like no you’ll be fine, we’re good and as I went to pick up the ball and sort of slide in to pick the ball up, I slid and heard my ankle go crack! I did two and a half of the three ligaments and the funny ankle called a syndesmosis. I mean, to me when he said that, it seemed like an Indian dish, this sort of tasted right. So, the syndesmosis I've never heard of and I've pretty much buggered my ankle and that was big rehab that was in a boot, everything. And then as I'm on the ground in immense pain and I said don't worry about scanning it. I know it's buggered. I know I'm out, I'm out of the World Cup. Oh no. And it sunk in I am out of the World Cup. I was training for four years to get to that. In that state I was devastated."
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