We should be thanking Asha Bhosle and her Friends, for this. Australian paceman Brett Lee, who is no mean a looker too, is out of the ongoing World Cup in the West Indies due to an ankle injury. That is, to be frank, good news for all the rival teams in the World Cup and for India, a spark of hope to get back something from the World Cup.

Brett Lee goit an unscheduled break from cricket and put his grey cells right into motion. And saw this as a great opportunity to build a platform for his post-retirement career in Bollywood.

Hindi cinema has of late been casting a lot of foreign actors in their films, and not just as "firang" walk-ons, not even as East India Company officers as in 'Mangal Pandey The Rising'. But in pivotal roles as in 'Rang De Basanti' and even as leads as in 'Kisna'.

Brett Lee will spend a fortnight in India to meet sponsors and negotiate a recording contract. This follows the happy success of Asha Bhosle's 'Friends and I' album shot during the Champions Trophy last year. The legendary Asha Bhosle roped in all her "friends", all of them non-singers but with star appeal, to create a "different" album, like Sunjay Dutt, Urmila Matondkar and Brett Lee.

Brett Lee's manager Neil Maxwell confirmed that the focus will be to build a platform for Brett "to perform at Bollywood level after his cricketing career". The Aussies apparently do not have much of a career after cricket and certainly not sponsorship deals which have become a bane for Indian cricketers.

After the Greg Chappell fiasco, and the Rickey Ponting-Sunil Gavaskar fencing, Australian cricketers may have run out of coaching opportunities as well. So that Brett Lee does not have to start from scratch when he retires, 'The Sydney Morning Herald' has also talked about his Bollywood orbitting.

Brett Lee, who did not perform all that badly in the 'Friends and I' album, hopes to finalise a music deal in next two months, after meeting music company heads, appearing on television and completing promotional commitments. Apart from his own focus being on film and music, Brett is positioning himself as a catalyst between Australian businesses and the Indian corporate world.

"The main thing is the language. Hindi is difficult to learn. It will probably take him two or three years to be speaking it confidently," his agent has said. But the Aussie speedster has already recruited a personal Hindi tutor. He is also developing relationships with Australian companies seeking to break into India, heightening his exposure in cricket's largest market.

Brett Lee's time frame for a return to cricket remains unaltered. But here's to a faster one from the paceman, with an eye beyond the middle stump. It won't be 'over' for Brett, even after he's finished with his quota of overs. - (SAMPURN)