By IANS,
Sydney : Australian pacer Brett Lee feels he still has four to five years of cricket left in him before he hangs his boots and is eyeing Dennis Lillee’s haul of 355 Test wickets.
Lee, who turned 32 last month, bounced back from a mediocre tour of India in the just concluded Test series against New Zealand.
“I am confident in my own mind,” Lee was quoted as saying in Herald Sun.
“If I keep doing the right things, if I look after my body, there is at least another four or five years left in me,” he said.
“I know I am 32, but the truth is that I have missed a fair bit of cricket with injuries, plus I was 12th man (for the Test side) for 18 months.”
“I only feel 27 or 28 in bowling terms. I’m still improving. I don’t feel I’m ready for that (retirement) just yet,” he said.
With 309 Test scalps, Lee is not very far from overtaking his idol, Lillee.
“To think I’m about 40-odd wickets from going past Dennis Lillee, I find it hard to comprehend,” he said. “It feels like yesterday I was playing for the Oak Flats under-8s.”
“Dennis was the bloke I emulated in the backyard. When I was 16, I met him at a fast bowlers’ clinic in Sydney. I remember him saying: ‘You have good pace, if you stay strong, you never know, one day you might play for Australia’.”