Brett Lee’s illustrious career8 Nov 1976: Born in Wollongong, New South Wales1999: Takes 5-47 on Test debut against India2003: Takes two wickets as Australia beat India by 125 runs in World Cup final2006: Named as one of five Wisden Cricketers of the Year2006: Named in ICC Test and ODI Team of the Year2007: Helps Australia complete 5-0 Ashes whitewash of England2008: Wins Allan Border Medal for Australia’s player of the yearTest career: 310 wickets, average 30.81, 76 matchesODI career: 380 wickets, average 23.36, 221 matchesT20 career: 28 wickets, average, 25.50, 25 matchesSYDNEY –Australian fast bowler Brett Lee retired from international cricket on Friday, just days after he was forced to return home from England after sustaining another injury and a few months before he had pencilled in a possible exit from the game.The 35-year-old, who first announced his decision on his Twitter page, sustained a right calf strain in the fourth one day match of Australia’s limited overs tour of England and was forced to return home for further examination and treatment.“The last two or three nights I have thought about it a lot and I woke up this morning and thought this was the right day to do it,” Lee told a media conference at Sydney Cricket Ground.Lee had been expected to be available for the World Twenty20 tournament in Sri Lanka later this year, and he said he had held discussions with the selectors about retiring from after that, but the most recent injury had changed those plans.“It (retirement) was going to be post-World Cup but I woke up this morning and felt ... that the time was right,” he added.Lee last played a test match in 2008, but continued to play international limited overs matches for Australia and in India’s lucrative Twenty20 competition. He retired from tests in 2010.He told Australia’s Channel Nine television he would continue to play Twenty20 cricket in Australia and India.In his prime Lee was one of the fastest and most aggressive bowlers in the world but has suffered from a long list of injuries that blighted his career, including stress fractures, ankle injuries, side strains and more recently a broken foot.He took 310 test wickets at 30.81 and 380 one-day international wickets at 23.36, one short of Glenn McGrath’s Australian record.
