Brett Lee - My Life by James Knight

Author:James Knight [Knight, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: SPORT
Publisher: Random House Australia
Published: 2012-03-22T04:00:00+00:00

19

Bloody injuries! Although I’d accepted they were an occupational hazard, I couldn’t help feeling luck was playing a cruel joke on me when I broke down before the first Test against Sri Lanka at Galle in March 2004. I’d been hot and cold in the one-day series against Sri Lanka – which we won 3–2 – but all the signs were positive in Australia’s warm-up match to the Test against a President’s XI in Colombo. It was a critical game for me. Shane Warne had returned from suspension, and on Sri Lanka’s spinner-friendly wickets, it was likely he and Stuart MacGill would both be in the Test team. That meant Australia would only take in two quicks.

Pidgey was still out injured, and with Jason Gillespie a certain starter, I was in a bowl-off with Michael Kasprowicz. I thought I’d confirmed my selection when I took 4-29 in the first innings, including two wickets in my first over. Not only had I bowled quickly, but I got a lot of swing. However, all too familiar pain in my left ankle troubled me, and in the second dig every single delivery killed me. After I’d taken a wicket with my final ball to finish with five for the match, I confessed to Ricky Ponting that I was ‘gone’.

‘What do you mean?’ he asked.

‘My ankle is stuffed. I’m kidding myself. It’s the same thing again.’

I hobbled off the field, and kept walking past some journos who wanted to know what was wrong; I was too annoyed to talk to them. I was soon back in Sydney recovering from another round of Kim Slater surgery. I have no doubt my heavy workload after coming back from my abdominal strain in October 2003 contributed to my problem. In just a four-week period between December and January I clicked over 194 overs in two Pura Cup games and two Tests. That’s 50 a match, 25 an innings. The workload issue for bowlers is always going to be a problem. Cricketers are paid good money to play, and both administrators and the fans expect them to play. So, play we do. Who knows how my body will be in the years ahead. I do know that if I went to a new physio tomorrow and had to fill out a card of my skeleton that reflected all the problems I had during my career, I reckon I’d colour in everything but my head.

It took about three to four months before I was back into the full swing of training again. After missing the away series to Sri Lanka, I was sidelined for two further Tests against the Sri Lankans in northern Australia, and some one-dayers in Zimbabwe. I aimed to be back for a few one-day series, including the ICC Champions Trophy in England, before what I considered would be one of the most important tours of my career: a four-Test campaign in India in October ’04. I’d still to play a Test on Indian soil, and was hell-bent on making a great impression when I got the chance.

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