Australia retained off-colour Matthew Hayden and replaced the injured trio of Brett Lee, Andrew Symonds and Shane Watson with three uncapped players for the third and final Test against South Africa. Having already conceded the three-match series to Graeme Smith's men, the selectors on Tuesday drafted in three uncapped players -- pacemen Doug Bollinger and Ben Hilfenhaus and all-rounder Andrew McDonald -- in the 12-man squad.
Twenty20 might be considered a bowler's nightmare but for Australian speedster Brett Lee it's a format which has helped him finetune his skills.
Fragile speedster Brett Lee has reached a phase in his career when recurring injuries question his longevity but the Australian pacer says he is in no mood to hang his boots and will continue playing as long as his body permits.
He has lost a good 5-6 kgs and worked that extra hard on his fitness, making him 'leaner than ever before' in the words of India captain Virat Kohli.
Australian all-rounder Shane Watson has played down his reported tiff with fellow pace bowler Brett Lee over his comments about Lee's fitness ahead of last month's Headingly Ashes Test.
Pace bowler Brett Lee and all rounder Shane Watson have been included in Australia's squad for next month's Twenty20 World Cup in England, despite not having bowled at international level since last year.
Australia repulsed a spirited late charge to record a four-run win over England at the Oval on Friday in the first of seven one-day internationals.
England's latest batting prospect Joe Denly is set to renew an old rivalry on Sunday against Australia fast bowler Brett Lee who gave him an early insight into batting in international cricket.
Australian cricketers in state side New South Wales continue to be hot property in the Indian Premier League (IPL)and young opener David Warner has become the latest to take the IPL plunge, signing a two-year deal with the Delhi Daredevils. The 22-year-old hit a NSW one-day record score of 165 not out against Tasmania in a Ford Ranger Cup game last month.
Australian skipper Ricky Ponting has told injury-plagued pacer Brett Lee that his Test future hinges on a good performance in the upcoming one-day series against England.
Tendulkar and Warne planned to recruit 28 players to play 15 matches.
Australia pace bowler Brett Lee has been ruled out of the second Ashes Test after failing to recover from the rib injury that forced him to miss the first, captain Ricky Ponting said on Wednesday.
Former Australia captain Steve Waugh says Indian bowling has come off age. 'It was all about India's spin bowling, but now Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma are doing well. They are good at reverse swing and India always had quality spinners.'
Hanuma Vihari's role as an opener is a stop-gap one and he will be given enough opportunities in his preferred middle-order spot should he fail at the top, assured chairman of selectors MSK Prasad.
Pacer Stuart Clark's elbow injury kept him out of Australia's practice session in Mohali on Wednesday and team physio Alex Kountouris will assess him on Thursday to find out if he could be fit in time for the second Test against India starting on Friday. In case Clark fails to recover in time, either Peter Siddle or Doug Bollinger is virtually assured of winning their first Test cap.
'There is room for cautious optimism following the Harris anointment that America will return this year to more normal politics after the aberration of the Trump presidency,' points out Shreekant Sambrani.
He might be under pressure to regain his place in the Australian team for the upcoming Ashes series but pacer Brett Lee insists he is at the peak of his fitness and is feeling stronger than ever.
After the first week of the DLF IPL, the Australians appeared to be dominating. From the second week onwards, especially after Matthew Hayden, Michael Hussey, Brett Lee and Andrew Symonds left, the Indians seemed to be gaining ascendancy with fine performances from Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rohit Sharma, the Pathan brothers and M S Dhoni.
West Indies' captain Chris Gayle smashed the Australian bowlers to all parts of the Oval on Saturday to lead his team to a seven wicket victory in their opening Twenty20 World Cup group C match. Gayle struck 88 with six sixes and six fours from 50 deliveries as West Indies overhauled Australia's 169 for seven with 4.1 overs to spare.
Unfazed by threats issued by Shiv Sena and well on his way to recovering from an elbow injury, Australian speedster Brett Lee on Thursday said he would play in the Indian Premier League starting March 12.
There are reports that the BCCI has signed up several Australian cricketers, including Ricky Ponting, for IPL.
The opening Test between Australia and South Africa at Perth is interestingly poised at the end of fourth day's play on Saturday.
"I really felt for Shafali Verma at the end, it was tough seeing her in tears but she should be very proud of the way she's performed in Australia," Brett Lee wrote in his column for the ICC.
Brett Lee might have been included in the Australian squad for the One-Day International series against Pakistan but the injury-prone speedster would not be rushed back into the playing eleven, says coach Tim Nielsen. Lee, who has had four surgeries on his right ankle -- the latest in January -- has been included in the Australian side for the five-match series against Pakistan starting April 22 in Dubai.
Andrew Symonds and Brett Lee's call-up for the ODI series against Pakistan came not without a price and the Australian duo are set to miss out on US $1.75 million of Indian Premier League (IPL) money, according to reports in Melbourne. The call-up revived the international career of both the Australians but at the same time, limited their availability for the second edition of the IPL starting in South Africa on April 18.
Australia captain Ricky Ponting won the toss and elected to bat first in Sunday's tri-series ODI against India.
After weeks of denial, Australian pace spearhead Brett Lee has finally admitted that the bitter separation from his wife and the ensuing custody battle for his son did take a toll on his on-field performance in the lost Test series against India.
Australian pace spearhead Brett Lee feels the Sydney Test furore that almost derailed India's cricket tour Down Under was a result of "contentious umpiring" and the World champions' much-cricticised behaviour was in no way responsible for the controversy.
Breaking his silence on the on-field clash between Australia skipper Ricky Ponting and Brett Lee, coach Tim Nielsen said a poor over-rate wasn't the main reason the strike bowler was not used in the first session on the fourth day of the second Test in Mohali. It was, he says, also because they wanted to take pace off the ball.
The wear and tear of the last 10 years have taken a toll on Brett Lee's body but the Australian pace spearhead has no plans of cutting down on any formats of the game to prolong his career.
The SC nominee has rejected as "completely false" the sexual assault allegation
NSW cricketer Ryan Carters announces retirement at 26!
Sacrificing pace for a longer career is not an option for Brett Lee despite the injury breakdowns he has endured and the Australian fast bowler on Thursday said he would work out a plan to sustain himself if it becomes too hard to handle.
Far from being a controversy-ridden battle, Australian pace spearhead Brett Lee reckons his team's four-Test series against India would go down as a "hallmark of friendship" because players from both the sides have forgotten about past rows.
Under heavy criticism for losing the one-day series against South Africa, Australia skipper Ricky Ponting on Tuesday said that his side was hit hard by a string of injuries which kept most of his key players out of action.
Australia will be counting on their pace attack, not spin, to beat India in their four-Test series that begins next month, chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch said on Friday. Australia named the uncapped Doug Bollinger and Peter Siddle in their 15-man squad to provide back-up to the front line trio of Brett Lee, Stuart Clark and Mitchell Johnson for the series.
Injured Australian pace spearhead Brett Lee has blamed himself for the current breakdown, saying he ended up being his own enemy by bowling long spells despite having no strength to carry on. Lee bowled a massive 4500 deliveries, over 580 overs, in the year gone by. The workload not just took a toll on his form but also left him down with an ankle injury, which required a surgery -- fourth of his career.
Captain Ricky Ponting, his deputy Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds, Matthew Hayden, Michael Clarke, Mike Hussey, Brett Lee, Nathan Bracken, Brad Haddin, Mitchell Johnson, Simon Katich, Jason Gillespie and Cameron White are the Australians who have joined the IPL.
As Australia grapples with Brett Lee's form slump and fitness woes, former captain Bill Lawry suggests that the only way to save the pace spearhead's career is to keep him off cricket for a while.
