October 25 Friday 2002
Need to be patient and wickets will come: Lee 

SYDNEY: Speedster Brett Lee says patience is the key to ending a lean run of wickets which threatens his place in Australia's all-conquering Test cricket team. Lee was the worst performing of Australia's specialist bowlers in the three-Test series savaging of Pakistan, taking only five wickets at an average of 46.80. Since snaring 42 victims in his first seven Tests, 25-year-old Lee has taken just 47 in his last 17 games and hasn't had a five-wicket haul in 
the last 11 games. When Jason Gillespie recovers from a calf muscle injury which kept him out of the last two Tests in Sharjah, Lee could struggle to retain his place in the Australian team to face England in the five-Test Ashes series. 

Gillespie's replacement, Andy Bichel, captured eight wickets at 13.25 and the first match of the Ashes series is on his home ground in Brisbane, starting on November 7. 

Lee said he bowled well in the final Test in Sharjah, even though he went wicketless in 29 overs. "I'm disappointed that I missed out in the last Test, but I thought the ball did come out quite well," Lee said upon his arrival home on Thursday. "I was happy with the pace, happy with the line and length and I think if I continue to actually bowl that way the wickets will come, so it's a matter of staying patient.

"(Skipper) Steve Waugh came up to me after the match and said that I bowled well." 

Other senior team members including coach John Buchanan, paceman Glenn McGrath and opening batsman Matthew Hayden were supportive of Lee. "I thought Brett bowled very well in the last Test," McGrath said on Thursday. 

"You go through stages where you bowl well and don't pick up wickets. I had a chat to Brett and said if you keep bowling well you'll take wickets." 

Buchanan said the make-up of the pace attack was the selectors' call, but emphasised how hard Lee had been working. "It's almost like pre-season for Brett, because he's done a hell of a lot of work and I think he's got a good foundation under his belt," Buchanan said.