Brett Lee has been roped in to mentor the Ruby Kanchi Warriors in the inaugural edition of the India Cements Tamil Nadu Premier League. He addressed the media about his association with the Warriors, Indian fast bowling, Australians struggling to play spin among other things. Excerpts: How does it feel to be in Chennai and to be a part of the Ruby Kanchi Warriors side? It is an absolute pleasure to be here for Ruby Kanchi Warriors. I’ve been watching their progress in the last couple of games. It is nice to be here and I am looking forward to the rest of the tournament. What is your plan as a mentor? I think the first thing is to listen to what the players want to learn. It’s a great learning curve for everybody involved. I can learn off them too, what they’re going through in their careers. I can pass on a lot of knowledge that I’ve learned throughout my career and that has been passed on to me through Glenn McGrath or Dennis Lillee, who are all great players.
I’ll try to be there in the situations from a bowler’s point of view where I can work on tactics and different areas to bowl. I want to make sure that I enjoy working with what I’ve been told is a great team. Do you think this is a good initiative by the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA)? I think it’s a fantastic initiative. The fact that you’ve got these domestic players who have a chance to go on and one day represent their country is something great. They are doing what they love doing - playing cricket in a fantastic format that is Twenty20 cricket. They are doing it on a big stage and in front of good crowds. What prompted you to join the Kanchi team? The Ruby Kanchi Warriors were looking for a mentor. I guess our paths crossed through Star Sports and here we are today. I thought if I’m going to be here anyway I might as well pass on my knowledge and work with a local franchise. Do you see yourself coaching an IPL franchise in the future? It’s something that I won’t rule out. It’s definitely not at the forefront of what I want to do. It’s great to be a mentor, bowling coach or advisor with the Ruby Kanchi Warriors. I’m enjoying being a commentator and giving it back to cricket. How strong do you think the local talent is, to become international pace bowlers? I’ve always said that in any type of sport, you have to be physically and mentally strong. You have got to perform at the top level. This is a perfect entrée in what could be a successful career and there is obviously a chance to represent their country. I think it’s a great tournament and initiative and I reckon that we’ll see a lot of young emerging players who will one day go on to represent their country. How should fast bowlers from Tamil Nadu train? The issue we’ve got with fast bowlers nowadays is that a lot of guys get injured. I think the training hasn’t been correct – they either over-train or under-train. You got different squads that try and bowl their bowlers into the ground while others will only let them bowl 20 balls per training session.
I’ll be passing on the techniques that I’ve learnt. I do a lot of gym work with F45 gyms which is starting up here in India. I think it’s a perfect example for the best way to train to be a fast bowler. Because you’re not doing heavy height, you’re doing light weights in high repetition to get strong.
As a bowler from Chennai, you don’t have to be a big strong bowler. It’s about technique and having the right muscle mass. How would you rate the league till now? It has been very good and I think the talent is outstanding. I like to watch things live. So I’m looking forward to being in the dug-out, being in the commentary box and watching the talent live. I know that the talent will be excellent. Describe your interactions with the team I need to have a look at the Warriors and see how they play. I met a few of the players this morning. I met the captain and met Shah Rukh Khan who is a very funny lad. He’s a bit taller than SRK (laughter). Who is your favourite Indian bowler out of the current lot? I like Jasprit Bumrah. Yes, his action is different. I feel he can definitely become a lot faster if he can fix his front arm. But then, that works for him. So you wouldn’t get a lot of bowlers who would copy his action. His action is as unique as Jeff Thomson’s, a bit like a wound-up spring.
I’ve been impressed with the way he has bowled because he has got good pace and I like his aggression. We’ve seen some wonderful bowlers from India throughout the years and I’ve played against Zaheer Khan or Ishant Sharma. We now need to find the next fast Indian bowler which hopefully I’ll be able to help with. Do you think India should use neutral wickets against New Zealand? When you tour India, no matter whether you’re Australian, Kiwi or West Indian, you know you are going to get low, slow wickets which suit Indian players. I think they should go about the way they have always gone about their wickets and prepare the traditional Indian wicket which will suit Indian players. Recently Australia has struggled against spin in the sub-continent. What has gone wrong? Once again I think it’s because of the turning wickets. We don’t have a lot of experience as Australian cricketers on low, slow wickets while growing up. To me it’s a matter of us learning as players and the more experience they can get in the sub-continent, the better it’s going to be for the batsmen.
The bowlers do a pretty good job in such tournaments. Batsmen from overseas have traditionally struggled on Indian wickets because they’re not used to the turn. But that’s all part of playing on foreign wickets. Australia is not the bowling power-house it was before. Any reason why? We are going through that transitional phase in Australia now. We haven’t got a Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Michael Kasprowicz, Andy Bichel or a Jason Gillespie to mention a few. We’re seeing the likes of Mitchell Johnson move away from cricket. We’ve seen some other fast bowlers come and go.
Now it’s up to the young guys to stand up. I think someone like a Pat Cummins, who’s got great pace once he’s fully fit, has a lot to offer. Mitchell Starc is bowling really well. It’s tough being a fast bowler but they have to find a group of young fast bowlers that will then carry the mantle for five to ten years.
How crucial is the workload factor for a fast bowler? Does he need to pick and choose? I hate it when they say that a bowler has been rested. Usually, what happens is when a bowler gets rested after playing in three matches, his replacement comes in and takes a five-for. Now, with both doing equally well, whom does the management choose? Personally I think It breeds a lot of insecurities in the team.
So if you want to be a good fast bowler, you got to be the fittest in the team. If you are good and fit enough, you should play in every single game. What are your thoughts on R Ashwin as a bowler? Ashwin has always been world class and shown promise from the first game that he played. With an off-spinner that gets a lot of bounce because of his height, he gets a lot of sharp turn and he has got a good change-up of different balls too. He is an attacking bowler and he’s not like the traditional off-spin bowler who just throws the ball up and waits for the batsmen to make a mistake.
That’s obviously why he’s best in the world currently and he’s doing a very good job. What inputs will you be able to give the batsmen in your squad? It’s funny that people look at you and think you’re just a bowler. It’s not just those three styles of cricket (batting, bowling, fielding) that make up the game. It’s the whole mental side as well, the structure of the game, the team environment, having a good coach, respecting your captain, making sure that everyone is on the same page, making sure that they’re training hard etc.
I’ll be talking about training, approach to the game and if everyone knows their role in the game. It’s the whole package that makes a good team. What inputs will you give them to become mentally stronger? To me it’s about being confident. It’s about being very happy in your own environment and playing with freedom. If you can go out there and express yourself as an athlete at the top level in this domestic competition, if you can play with freedom then you often going to be more successful - that will be one of the things I will pass on to the team to play with freedom. What are your views about Mitchell Starc? The thing with Mitchell Starc is that he’s done well in one-day international cricket and T20 because he bowls with the white ball. He bowls extremely well with good pace, swings the ball in and has a great yorker. I want to see him take that aggression, control, experience and freedom of bowling into Test cricket.
It’s the same ball, just a different colour and it is also the same length of the pitch with three stumps. That’s what people sometimes get confused with Test cricket and ODI, you still have to bowl the same types of balls. A good yorker in Test cricket is a good yorker in T20 cricket as well.
A good length ball that is going to nick behind in ODIs is also going to get wickets in Test cricket. I want Mitchell Starc to go out there and approach bowling with freedom in Test cricket and to still bowl fast. Nowadays, a lot of pacers cut down on pace after getting injured. Your views. I did twelve operations and I never cut down my pace even once. If you are there to bowl fast, you are there to bowl fast, period. You try and hit your top speed every single time. Nothing excited me as running in and bowling at 130km per hour. If a biopic was made on you who would you like to see play Brett Lee? Probably, Leonardo di Caprio (laughter). Personally I probably wouldn’t want one on me. There’s one on (MS) Dhoni and Sachin (Tendulkar) coming out soon. I’ll be making sure I watch it because it will be exciting to see what these guys have gone through.
Everyone’s been on a journey through life and everyone has got a story to tell. I’m not really worried about my story at the moment. I’m really happy I did the movie UnIndian and it’s doing really well here. Why has Australia not been able to play good quality spin over the last few years? You have to play smart cricket. When it comes to your shot selection it’s very important. If you are getting out sweeping against the spin, you have to put that in the memory bank and say maybe that’s not the best option, I probably have to use my feet quicker.
Guys who have been very good playing spin from overseas have used their feet very well as opposed to playing the cross-bat shots.
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