Brett Lee

Brett Lee (born 8 November 1976) is an Australian former international cricketer, who played all three formats of the game.

During his international career, Lee was recognised as one of the fastest bowlers in the world.

In March 1994, he was forced out of the Australian under-19 team to tour India due to stress fractures in his lower back and it forced him to remodel his bowling action to minimise the impact on his back.

He was awarded a scholarship to attend the AIS Australian Cricket Academy in the 1995–96 season.

His contemporaries included fellow internationals Jason Gillespie and Mike Hussey.

Prior to making his first-class debut, Lee played for Mosman in the final of the 1996–97 Sydney Grade Cricket competition.

Lee was first named in the New South Wales Blues squad as the twelfth man for the 14–16 November match against Queensland in the 1997–98 Sheffield Shield.

The following week, he made his first-class debut for the Blues against Western Australia and took 3 wickets at 114, including that of the captain Tom Moody.

It would be his only appearance in the Sheffield Shield for the rest of the season.

He ended a memorable month by taking a 5-wicket haul in the Sydney grade Limited-Overs Cup final against Bankstown on 30 November.

During the 1998–99 season Lee was a more regular presence in the latter stages of the Sheffield Shield.

He took 14 wickets, including a 5-wicket haul against Tasmania in the second innings.

He started the 1999–2000 season by claiming 8 wickets in his first two matches.

Such performances impressed his New South Wales teammate Steve Waugh, who was then Australia captain, and culminated in his Test debut in December 1999.

He finished the season as the Blues' second-highest wicket taker in the Pura Cup with 24 wickets in 5 matches.

Considered one of the best bowlers of his generation, only Muttiah Muralitharan took more ODI wickets than Lee from 2000 to 2009.

With 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.

Lee was also the first Australian bowler to take a hat-trick at a Cricket World Cup which he did in the 2003 Cricket World Cup Super Match game against Kenya.

In each of his first two years, Lee conceded fewer than 20 runs for every wicket taken, but later recorded figures in the low 30s.

He was an athletic fielder and useful lower-order batter, with a batting average exceeding 20 in Test cricket.

Lee finished his Test career with 310 wickets, and his One Day International career with 380 wickets.

Lee was the first bowler to take a hat-trick in the T20 format of the game which he did in 2007 ICC World Twenty20 in the inaugural tournament against Bangladesh, subsequently being the first bowler to do so at an ICC Men's T20 World Cup.

After a successful Test series against India, Lee returned to domestic cricket and was named in the 2008 Pura Cup final.

He hit his career best batting score, 97 against Victoria in the Blues' second innings and scored a record 176-run partnership with Beau Casson.

In Victoria's second innings, he took 4–72, dismissing the last four tailenders, as the Blues won the final.

In 2009 he battled back from injury and was a key player in New South Wales' success during the Champions League Twenty20.

During the final he played an important part with both bat and ball and was named Man of the Match.

He also won the Man of the Series award.

Following his retirement from Test cricket, Lee stopped playing first-class cricket to concentrate on the limited-overs formats.

He was the Blues' highest wicket-taker in the 2010–11 Ryobi One-Day Cup with 15 wickets and had the second best economy rate of the top five wicket-takers despite missing the latter stages of the campaign due to international duty.

He played his first Test in 1999 and retired from international cricket on 12 July 2012.

He subsequently declined to renew his contract with his home state side New South Wales, but continued to play Twenty20 matches for several seasons after, notably in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and Big Bash League.

In June 2012 he declined to renew his contract with the Blues, ending his 15-year association with his domestic team.

In January 2015, Lee announced his retirement from all forms of the game, effective at the end of the 2014–15 Big Bash League season.

He has since found work as a film actor and a Fox Sports commentator.

Lee started playing in the junior teams of his local side, Oak Flats Rats, and gradually worked his way up the ranks.

He also played for Middleton cricket before he played first class career.

At 16 he began playing first grade cricket for Campbelltown, where he managed to claim the wickets of a few New South Wales cricketers, and Mosman, where at one point, he shared the new ball with Shoaib Akhtar and briefly played alongside England batsman Andrew Strauss.

Lee was called up to the Australian Under 17 & 19 teams.

He retired from Big Bash League after playing in the final for the Sydney Sixers on 28 January 2015.