Brett Lee announces his retirement

After a long test and one-day career, pace bowler Brett Lee has now announced his retirement from the shortest and most lucrative form of the game, Twenty20 cricket. Having given his test career away in 2010 after not playing a test in 2009 due to injury; the toll of bowling at speeds in excess of 150 kph took a cumulative toll on his body. Lee made his international test debut in 1998 against India taking a wicket in his first over and becoming the first bowler since Dennis Lillee to take 5 wickets on debut.

He gave up all forms of international cricket in 2012 after playing 76 test matches for Australia taking 310 wickets and scoring 5 half-centuries, 221 one day internationals for 380 wickets and 25 T20 internationals - fairly impressive figures.

Still playing in the Indian Premier league and Australian Big Bash League, Lee has now announced his retirement from all forms of cricket at 38 years of age, almost unheard of for an express pace bowler. There aren't too many bowlers cracking the 160 kph barrier, there was Jeff Thompson in the 1970s and Pakistan's Shoaib Akhtar who played in the same era Lee, both with much shorter careers than Lee.