The real reason Brett Lee broke down is pure earnest desperation.
Lee flew around the world trying to prove he was fit again.
He wouldn’t stay in Sydney and wait for the call; he had to make it happen.
That is how he is, and it isn’t the first time it has pushed him over the edge.
He has injured himself before trying to get more out of himself than was humanly possible, and the beamer incident from a few years back was a perfect example of someone mentally breaking it down because he couldn’t perform at the level he thought his country needed of him.
When Ponting questioned his commitment he responded by tearing out the spine of the English lions team. It was a brutal bowling performance. Few bowlers have a spell like that in them, and fewer ever produce one.
It was super human. And it is nor surprising that perhaps he left a piece of his rib out on that pitch.
Brett pushed himself so hard to be in the position he is right now. Physically & mentally. With the departure of his wife he seemed even more committed to becoming the Brett Lee of only 18 months ago.
He wanted it too much, he tried too hard, and he is broken.
I like Brett Lee, I met him once, and he was so unnecessarily nice.
There have been many times I have questioned his place in the Australian team, but never have I questioned how much he wants to be there.
When Brett Lee tried, he put in everything he had, and then some more.
One look at his face and you could tell that few will ever try as hard as Brett Lee does.
Wanting to be in the ashes as bad as he did is probably the reason he won’t be in them.
“And all men kill the thing they love,
By all let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword!”Oscar Wilde
