Ricky Ponting has said that he has had to give Brett Lee an occasional kick up the backside to get the best out of his fast bowler.
The Age said that he delivered one such "rocket" during the tour game at Worcester, during which Lee injured a side muscle.
Recalling the incident, Ponting said that he was struggling to get Lee’s attention, who was mucking around with the crowd at fine leg during the first innings against the England Lions.
"I'd waved to him and told him to warm up to bowl the next over, because I knew the ball was going to reverse. But he hadn't warmed up, so I explained that if he hadn't been talking to the crowd, maybe he would have heard what I was talking about," Ponting said in an interview with former England captain Nasser Hussain in the Daily Mail.
Ponting and Lee clashed during the fast bowler's difficult tour of India last year when Lee queried why he had not been brought into the attack, and the Australian captain told Hussain that his star pacer was someone who needed the occasional kick in the pants.
"Sometimes he is, and one of a captain's biggest roles is to understand his players' personalities and get the best out of them," Ponting said.
"The incident with Brett that's been most highlighted was in India where it was just a bit of a miscommunication about why he wasn't bowling at a certain time of day. We got that sorted out but I think a rocket for a player every now and then is not the worst thing. If they're the right sort of character, they'll bounce back."
Lee took seven wickets for the match but stiffened up during the bus ride from Worcester to Cardiff, later explaining that he had been desperate to prove he could still bowl with express pace in an effort to reclaim his place in the team.
© ANI
