Brett Lee

Brett Lee (born 8 November 1976 in Wollongong, New South Wales) is an Australian cricketer. After breaking into the Australian Test team, Lee was recognised as one of the fastest bowlers in world cricket. In each of his first two years, he averaged less than 20 with the ball, but since then has mostly achieved figures in the early 30s.

He is an athletic fielder and useful lower-order batsman, with a batting average exceeding 20 in Test cricket. Together with Mike Hussey, he has held the record for highest 7th wicket partnership for Australia in ODIs since 2005–06 (123).

Lee is a fast bowler, one of the fastest the game has known. Lee’s fastest recorded delivery to date is 160.8 km/h (99.9 mph) which he bowled in his first over on March 5, 2005 at Napier, New Zealand against Craig Cumming.

Lee ranked with Pakistani bowler Shoaib Akhtar as the fastest bowler in contemporary cricket during most of this decade. Akhtar’s delivery at 161.3km/h (100.23mph) stands as the fastest recorded to date.

Early in his career, Lee was reported for a suspected illegal bowling action, but was cleared. He was also criticised in early 2005 for bowling a series of beamers at batsmen during ODIs, at a rate which lead some to claim he was deliberately bowling illegal head high full tosses at batsmen.

Achievements:

Brett Lee has played 76 Test matches for Australia so far. In his 76 Tests, he has taken 310 wickets at an average of 30.81 with 5/30 being his best bowling performance.

Lee became the first Australian in 22 years to take a wicket in his first over in Test cricket when he bowled Sadagoppan Ramesh in his fourth delivery.

Bret took a historic hat trick against Kenya and a total of 22 wickets in the World Cup 2003. He became the first Australian and fourth bowler to ever achieve this feat in World Cup history.

Lee was one of Australia’s star performers in the 2005 Ashes and took 20 wickets and in tandem with Shane Warne with the ball and Michael Kasprowicz with the bat, came desperately close to pulling off two unlikely Test wins at Trent Bridge and Edgbaston.

Bret is capable of bowling at 160 kilometres per hour and his fastest recorded delivery to date is at 160.8 km/h which he bowled against Craig Cumming of New Zealand at Napier on March 5, 2005.