Waugh helps to keep Lee
STEVE WAUGH wants to sit down with Brett Lee and plot ways to make him a better Test bowler.
Waugh feels Lee deserves better results for his supreme commitment and the potent weapons - pace and swing - at his disposal.
Lee has averaged 39 per Test wicket over the past five years and Waugh believes pace alone is not enough to guarantee success at Test level.
"He deserves better than he is getting. Like all cricketers, he has to get to know his game," said Waugh, who discussed Lee's career in his autobiography Out of My Comfort Zone (Viking, $49.95), which will be released today.
"Maybe he needs to get a bit smarter in the way he operates, particularly to the tailend batsmen.
"He is doing a lot of hard work but he is not getting the cheap easy wickets that make your figures justify the effort you put it.
"He is getting 2-100 when there are times when he is bowling well enough to get 4-60. He just needs some slight modifications and to look at how he is planning to get batsmen out.
"I am pretty keen to get together with Brett.
"He tried so hard in the Ashes series. His stats - 20 wickets at 40 - didn't show the effort he put in and the wickets he took.
"He has always been a man that has got wickets with extreme pace but that hasn't always got you through.
"Brett right now is going 100mph and busting a gut. I think everyone appreciates that and other bowlers are benefiting from his hard work. He needs to start benefiting from his own work."
Lee's best Test figures - 5-47 - were on debut against India and Waugh believes Lee must rediscover some of his early methods to maximise his returns.
"When Brett came on to the scene he bowled fast and in the right areas and had the benefit of people not seeing him," Waugh said.
"But he has to get back to that. Being more consistent.
"Get some short stuff in there occasionally but then get back into the corridor which Glenn McGrath owns.
"Batsmen are relaxing a bit more with Brett. They know they will get loose balls, so they will take him on."
For most of his career Lee has been revved up to be the enforcer of Australia's attack, for no-one else in the side can match his pace.
Lee has a crucial part to play in Australia's future. The 35-year-old McGrath cannot last forever and Australia are still unsure of the identity of their third best seamer, the man directly behind Lee.
The Courier-Mail