The legendary pace bowler can not only intimidate the batsmen with his bouncers but can also be the most friendliest Australian you can ever meet - Brett Lee was here in town for promoting TNPL 2.0.and was at his best answering questions thrown at him in the press meet organized in this account.
When asked about his role in TNPL this year, he was the mentor of the then Ruby Kanchi warriors (now Ruby Trichy warriors) in the first edition, he said he will be enjoying commentary and will be coaching young bowlers from different teams this season. “I will go around promoting the game through the fan parks and reaching out to youngsters, not everyone can go to the big grounds”.
There were questions from the controversial rule about the bat size for which he answered” for guys like Chris Gayle, Shane Watson or Hardik Pandya who smashes the balls the bat size should definitely be bigger. It has to be according the player’s comfort and his style of batting.”
On the ongoing tiff between the Australian cricket board and the players Brett Lee said “That has to be sorted out and we should get back to playing some good cricket when we have a big series coming.”
TNPL is a breeding ground for young talent. Brett Lee mentioned “TNPL is a wonderful opportunity for youngplayers, T.Natrajan is one who got into the big league, IPL. TNPL has brought no. of players to the fore, like TNPL there may be a league in the North, it can happen across the country. It will be a great opportunity for young cricketers to showcase their talent. India will become the powerhouse of Cricket in the world with so much of talent coming in”.
Talking about pace bowlers the Australian said, “Pace is a great talent. Bowlers who bowl at a great pace can also bowl at good length. With the right training any good pace bowler can do that”.
Cricket has always been more favorable to batsmen and the Pace bowler acknowledges that fact. ”There are little changes which can be considered to favor the bowler too, but otherwise its pretty balanced”.
Talking about the performance of players on overseas tours Brett Lee made a valid comment.” Earlier the wickets in Australia used to be a wake up call for players from outside including India and that way players got to play in the fast pitches and learnt and improved their game. For players touring India playing in the slower pitches helped players to improve our skills and to play differently. But now working on the pitches, the learning opportunities on the field got reduced. Pitches all over the world should be maintained in their original forms to let the players adopt and improve their game in different playing conditions”.
And when asked about one batsman whom he was scared to bowl, “ there was a guy named Sachin Tendulkar, have u heard of him? Brett Lee gave a witty answer.” I was so fortunate for having played against great Indian players like Sachin, Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and Sehwag, they were the genius players but Sachin was the guy”.
His advice to young bowlers “there is nothing like bowling in the nets, keep practicing bowling and that’s the only way to become a better bowler”.
And about the Indian side under Kohli, he said “Virat Kohli is a stupendous cricketer and a great leader, Australians will have a tremendous series and l am looking forward eagerly for the series”
And so are the millions of Indians Mr.Brett Lee.