Brett Lee reveals how a cheeky Shane Warne ‘spoiler’ changed a huge career moment for him

Brett Lee has opened up on how he found out he was set to receive his first Australia Test cap from cricketing icon Shane Warne.

It is almost 26 years since Lee debuted for the Baggy Greens against India, a game in which he took seven wickets.

But in the lead-up to the match at the MCG, Lee revealed that Warne had ruined the surprise of finding out he was starting the Boxing Day Test alongside his team-mates.

‘Steve Waugh’s walking us onto the ground and Warnie’s in front of me and turns and says: “Mate you’re in, but when Tugga [Waugh] tells you, make out you don’t know”,’ Lee told The Sydney Morning Herald.

‘So he spoiled it for me, the great man. But I get down there, and I spoke to Tugga about this recently, he’s looking around to announce the side, and I’ve got this massive beaming smile, and he’s like: “He knows, someone’s let the cat out of the bag”.’

The 48-year-old pace bowler would go on to play 76 Test matches for Australia, taking 310 wickets, putting him inside Australia’s top-10 all-time leading wicket-takers.

Lee (left) revealed Warne (right) had told him he’d be getting his first Test cap during the 1999 Boxing Day Test instead of coach Steve Waugh

Lee went on to reveal that the friendships he developed with his team-mates was the one thing he missed the most about playing professionally

‘I got my cap by Ian Meckiff, and it was almost like you get a flashback of being a kid in the backyard, playing with my brother Shane and my younger brother Grant, and us being Allan Border, David Boon and Allan Donald from South Africa. I still get goosebumps about it.’

But Lee’s career was plagued by injury.

He’d go on to miss Australia’s tour of India in 2001 due to an elbow injury before later being sidelined for their 2007 World Cup victory due to an ankle problem.

He’d later go on to be sidelined for the 2009 Ashes due to a side strain and would also suffer several stress fractures to his back, too.

While he admitted he didn’t miss the pain those injuries caused him during his career, Lee revealed the one reason why he thinks cricket is such a special game and why there’s nothing quite like the Boxing Day Test.

‘I don’t look out there now and think: “I wish I was out there” because when I think of Test cricket I think of pain,’ Lee said.

‘I played maybe a couple of games of my career pain-free. The rest there was a knife going down the back of my ankle, broken back twice, double reconstruction of my elbow.

‘I don’t miss the pain, I don’t miss bowling in the heat. But I miss the moments after games in the changing room. Even the loss at Edgbaston in 2005. They’re the moments that make sport. Sport only lasts for a certain part of your life, but the friendships last forever.

‘I still think Boxing Day is the best Test to play in. As a young guy or girl who wants to play Test cricket, it’s the ultimate.’