Brett Lee - My Life

Brett Lee is known throughout the cricketing world as one of the fastest and most exciting pace bowlers to play the game. Intimidating while charming, decent yet ferocious, he is known for his quick-one liners as much as his gutsy bottom-order batting. He has been recorded bowling at speeds of over 160km/h leaving batsmen with only a fraction of a second to react once the ball leaves his hand.

Brett was born and raised in Wollongong, New South Wales where he grew up with his family and their shared love of sports. Brett tried his hand at many sports but cricket proved to be the one that he excelled in. He had his first official game of cricket at the age of nine. He quickly developed into a very talented player and progressed through the cricket ranks to be in a position where he gained selection for his state at the age of 21 and his country at 24.

Brett made his debut for Australia in the Boxing Day Test against India 1999. He finished his first match for his country with figures of 5/47. He has now picked up 310 wickets from 76 Tests, joining the elite 300 Test wicket club before retiring from Test cricket earlier this year to concentrate on the shorter forms of the game.

He also has a formidable limited-overs record - with 324 wickets from 186 ODIs. Brett has one of the best strike-rates in the world for this form of the game. His pace bowling combined with his ability as a hard hitting and determined tail end batsman make him a crowd favourite throughout Australia and the world.

Brett was awarded Man of the Series for the 2007/2008 Test series against India and the 2007 Alan McGilvray Medal by ABC radio. Then in February he 2008 won the 2008 Test Player of the Year and the prestigious Allan Border Medal 2008 for cricketer of the year.

Brett is an enthusiastic and motivated sportsman who is grateful for all of the opportunities that have come his way. He remains a grounded person who is generous with his time in and out of cricket.

James Knight is a veteran Australian cricketer whose best---and only---performances for his country came while he was asleep. Although his childhood dreams of wearing the Baggy Green cap didn't become a reality, he still went on several tours with the Australian cricket team during the 1990's. That is, as a television reporter and a more than willing net bowler.

James was raised on a farm in Gunnedah, country NSW. With a bag pipe-playing vet as a father and a poetry writing painter as a mother he had a colourful childhood that dashed between calved cows, charcoal thumbprints, and many, many words. He entered the media as a cadet journalist and sports commentator for Radio 2DU, Dubbo in 1988. Three years later, whilst also playing grade cricket he began his first Sydney media job as a journalist/news reader at radio 2SM. In 1992 he joined Channel Ten Television as a news and sports reporter/presenter. During eight years with the network he travelled extensively, primarily with the Australian team to the Indian subcontinent, South Africa, the West Indies and England.

In 1999, he left full-time television to concentrate on his life-long dream of becoming an author. After gaining further experience as a cricket reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald, he wrote two cricket biographies: Lee2 (Shane and Brett Lee at the beginning of his career); and Mark Waugh. Since then, he has written four other books: The Dragon's Journey, an inspirational account of the life of Vietnamese boat person Duy Long Nguyen, who now lives in Australia; Just Doing My Job, a collection of short biographies about people in Australia's Police, Ambulance and Fire Services; A Theory of Moments, which recalls a year-long backpacking adventure James took his wife, Clare through South America and Africa; and together with Brett Lee, an autobiographical account of the former test cricketer's world from childhood to the present: My Life.

James continues to work part-time in television as a long-form producer. He is also a popular public speaker.

Away from work he is an avid runner who has completed eleven marathons and also The North Face 100 (100 kilometres), considered one of the toughest one day endurance runs in the world. During this event, James raised nearly 10 thousand dollars for the Steve Waugh Foundation. He is also an ambassador for the international charity, Room to Read.

James lives in Sydney with Clare and son Iggy and, their dog Tango.