Legendary Australian quick Brett Lee has revealed a handful of former players were asked to send video messages to Pat Cummins’ side ahead of a difficult World Cup final.
India were red hot favourites coming into the clash at Narendra Modi Stadium, having remained unbeaten throughout the tournament on home soil.
However, after a Travis Head century and a captaincy masterclass from Cummins, Australia came away victorious and Lee explained he was given a chance to inspire the troops.
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He pointed to Australia’s record against India in World Cup finals, having bested them in South Africa in 2003, winning by 125 runs.
“A couple of players were asked to send messages to the team which they did the video link, my call to them was that we have a great track record against India,” Lee said to foxsports.com.au.
“We’ve won a number of World Cups now, so back yourself and that’s the mindset they would have taken into the game.
“Because it’s all well and good, 130,000 people, the expectation was that India were going to go out there and dominate.
“A couple of runouts, a couple of good pieces of fielding and all of a sudden that momentum shifts and the pressure got turned back on India.”
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Lee‘s message was added to a compilation of former World Cup winners who all know exactly how much this current Australian team will treasure their victory.
“They did a little collage and the players that had the opportunity and wanted to do it, they asked for some inspiration,” Lee said.
“I was down at the farm but I dug this up, my little World Cup ring, 2003 World Cup in South Africa.
“I had a look at this morning and there’s so many great memories when you look at these things and it’s a little ring but it was given to us by Mike Young our fielding coach, he had them done up.
“It’s something I’ll treasure for the rest of my life, I know that the guys, what this would mean to them now, they’d be deep into the celebrations and they should be.
“Because they have snatched victory in India where a lot of people didn’t think it could happen.”
Lee also believes Australia’s performance came off the back of Cummins’ calmness and ability to rally his troops after losing their first two games.
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Australia lost to both India and South Africa to get their tournament underway before bouncing back against Sri Lanka.
Interestingly, Australia beat both the Proteas and the hosts in their finals run before lifting the World Cup trophy.
“The captaincy from Pat Cummins to harness all that energy and belief within the team, we know what would have happened in that team meeting before going out on the field yesterday,” Lee said.
“He would have said ‘all right guys, let’s just breathe, take this moment in and enjoy the 130,000 people, we may never get this moment again’.
“To me it would have been that calmness that Pat Cummins would have been put over his players because they weren’t looking good after the first two games.
“They got off to a shocker, but once again with some belief and talent they have lifted the World Cup.”
Australia now turn their attention to a five game T20 series which starts on Friday, once again facing India.
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