Punter’s triple-edged sword

Pleased with his pace battery after their 91-run win over Zimbabwe in Ahmedabad on Monday, Ricky Ponting said, “All the three bowlers we had today are different. Brett (Lee) is accurate, (Shaun) Tait bowls with a sling-arm action, moving the new ball away and then reversing the old. Mitchell Johnson swings the ball both ways. It was one of the best one-day performances by Mitchell.”

However, there is one thing, besides their ability to uproot the stumps that brings them under one phylum. All the three speedsters had suffered breakdown at some point of their career. Interestingly, this has happened in the time between 2007 and 2011 World Cup. Shaun Tait and Mitchell Johnson were part of the 2007 winning team, but Brett Lee wasn’t.

After making his ODI debut in 2007, Tait was a vital cog in Ponting’s armoury. The speed gun, who loved to uproot the stumps, had become the talking point in the cricket fraternity. Unfortunately, in the following year, 2008, the South Australia bowler suffered physical and emotional exhaustion. That forced him to take a break from international cricket. Tait’s request was granted as Cricket Australia wanted to preserve its 24-year-old weapon.

Tait asked for break to come back with a clear mind and a chance for his body to rest and recover. Cricket Australia granted his wish. ‘Sloon’ hit the deck once again after eight months when he toured India with Australia A in later part of 2008. Since his return to the national side in 2009, Tait has avoided longer format to focus on T20 and ODIs.

He is once again at his best with blistering spells. In 2010, he recorded 161.1kmph, second fastest ball of all time. Out of 29 One-day Internationals he has played, 11 are in his second ‘life’ that began in January 2009. He has 20 wickets to his credit.
On the other hand, Johnson was bitten by the saas-bahu bug.

In 2009 when his mother made headlines saying, her son had been stolen from her by his karate champ fiance, Jessica Bratich. Harber told the Herald Sun newspaper her once-close relationship with her son had deteriorated since he started going out with Bratich. It was the same time when Australians were in England for Ashes.

It played on Johnson’s mind and the speedster, who had terrorised batsmen endured emotional breakdown. This was clearly reflected in a spectacular loss of form and was largely blamed for Australian team’s losing start to the five-Test series.
Pundits had said there were some technical issues involved in Johnson’s loss of bowling form, but former captain Kim Hughes firmly believed he had been deeply affected by his mother’s
comments.

Hughes had said, “I found it incredibly surprising that his mum said what she did - Mitchell Johnson is a pretty sensitive young man and now it looks like he is totally devoid of self-confidence.”
Johnson, though, put up a brave face and fought back to prove the critics wrong. He appeared to get back to his best towards the end of 2009 and earned praise from the team management during the summer series against both West Indies and Pakistan.

Meanwhile, Lee was one of the leading performers for Australia in 2003 World Cup in South Africa. The New South Wales cricketer stepped into big shoes of Glenn McGrath-Shane Warne after they announced their retirement in 2007.

Lee, who sang duet with legendary singer Asha Bhonsle in 2006, couldn’t sing duet with his wife. His three-year-old marriage with Elizabeth Kemp hit nadir.

In 2008, Lee applied for leave of absence from the national team, to deal with then dissolving marriage. At the time of the split, media speculation cited Kemp was having an affair with a rugby player in Brisbane; however, this was later disputed but it was enough to break Lee emotionally.

However, that is passe. The trio are at their best, bowling at 145kmph on the wickets, which traditionally help spinners.