Music had a huge role to play in keeping me motivated: Brett Lee

Carrying the scars of 13 surgeries on his body, four on the ankle alone, Brett Lee said it was quite a challenge to keep himself motivated but music filled up a massive vacuum in his life and helped him cope with several personal crises which included a divorce in 2008, says a report in The Indian Express.

"At 17, I was told by the doctor that I could never play cricket because of an elbow injury but I told him I will live my dream. I proved him wrong and played quite a few international games that too as a fast bowler. And Music had a huge role to play in keeping me motivated," Lee said at the launch of a music academy for underprivileged and autistic kids here.

"I turned to music during professional problems, during the personal crisis that I endured a few years ago. Music provided relief after a bad day in cricket and everything else. Music therapy has been brilliant for me," added the pacer, whose initiative -- 'Mewsic, A Brett lee Foundation' – is setting up academies all over India to help kids in orphanages and slums rediscover life through music.

According to an article in The DNA, India players may no longer have to worry about losing out on their IPL income in case of injuries. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has worked out an insurance scheme that will look after their financial interest in case they are rendered hors de combat.

“It has been understood that an arrangement has been prepared in collaboration with an insurance company to ensure that the players’ IPL remuneration is protected. It means, players like Ishant Sharma and S Sreesanth, who have missed out on the IPL games due to injuries, could be assured of their incomes despite missing out on the games,” says DNA, adding that the scheme was introduced this year but it is learnt that only players injured during the Australia tour would get the insurance cover.

“From next year, one is informed, the scheme could be extended to all the international matches and the players injured in any international game, will get protection. The exact details of the scheme were not known but, most likely, it would be applied to the players centrally contracted to the BCCI.”

Meanwhile Kumar Sangakarra in his column in The Times Of India writes that it could have been the weekend that dragged us back into the tournament, but the loss of two really closely fought games against Chennai and Bangalore was really disappointing for everyone in the squad.

“Against Chennai, we conceded 20-30 more runs than we should have due to poor fielding, while against Bangalore we struggled to find the right yorker-length with our death bowling and were brutally punished by a brilliant AB de Villiers,” writes Sangakarra, adding that he was really impressed by the batting of Daniel Harris and also by Shikar Dhawan, whose excellent run in this tournament continues.

“Cameron White also batted beautifully and the 182-run target set should really have been enough. If you look back, it is really frustrating that we’ve come so close on so many occasions in this campaign. While we have won only two matches, we’ve competed in nearly all.”