Lee not ready to call it quits

Brett Lee has bid farewell to the Test arena but is not yet ready to call it quits from cricket altogether. The veteran pacer is currently recovering from an elbow injury and has undergone surgery to get back to the game as quickly as possible. He fractured a bone from his left foot back in 2008 and has not participated in any test from then on.

Lee has been suffering not just from the fractured left foot but also from several side injuries and elbow injuries since the past 15 months. Despite knowing the fact that his body is wearing out, Lee wants to keep on playing at one-day matches and the shorter form, the Twenty20 matches. However, the decision to attend the 2010 IPL series is still pending. He is not in favor of younger generation pace bowlers to give up on Test matches, “Obviously, there's specialist one-day and Twenty20 bowlers. But for me, Test cricket is where it's at. There's a lot of luck in Twenty 20, a lot of skill and a bit of luck in one-dayers. But Test cricket is a test for the bowlers and a test for the batsmen."

In the 1999-2000 season, Lee grabbed his very first Test wicket which he remembers well enough. He dismissed Sadagoppan Ramesh at the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) in his opening over. Lee still has fresh memories of this very moment, “At that point I could've hung up the boots just then.” He went in crashing the hopes of 46 batsmen on the cricket pitch before retiring hurt for the first time. Lee needed surgery after a harsh elbow injury. After recovering from the surgery, Lee was fit to support Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie before dominating the Australian bowling attack from 2005 till 2008.

In 2009, Lee recovered from his ongoing elbow injury to come back for the Ashes. However, he strained his side after proving his potency in the final warm-up match. As another elbow operation was required, he returned back home from the one-day tour to India and spent the rest of the summer recovering from the injury. "This hasn't happened overnight," said Lee. "This has been a long process. I've had the time to step away from cricket and what I want to achieve. It's been about a three- to four-month decision that I've made and finally I went with it."

The captain of the Australian national team, Ricky Ponting said that Lee is the fourth-highest wicket taker for Australia and should be remembered an one of the great players. "If we all just take a minute and think about what he's put himself through in that 10 or 12 years," he further said. "Running 35 metres to bowl every ball, bowling every ball at close to 150kph, and putting his heart on the line every ball he bowls, this bloke deserves a massive pat on the back."