MELBOURNE: Miffed with media reports linking his poor on-field form to his marriage break-up, Australian pace spearhead Brett Lee has asserted that he always keeps his personal and professional life apart.
"I try to keep to cricket; I don't try to mix things. I take it to heart if someone puts the emotional things in, especially if stuff is written in the paper about my emotional side, so I try to stick to the cricket," Lee was quoted as saying by the 'Sydney Morning herald'.
Lee has struggled on the ongoing Test tour of India, taking just seven wickets in the concluded three Tests at an average of over 50.
His poor form has been blamed on the emotional turmoil that he has gone through after separating from his wife of two years, Elizabeth Kemp.
The two are currently embroiled in a custody battle of their two-year-old son Preston Charles.
Lee admitted that the past few months have been hard but insisted that his personal woes were not in any way responsible for his on-field lack of form.
"It has been tough. There's been a lot of things in the last three or four months that have gone on, but I'm here to play cricket and ready to play. I wouldn't have come on this tour if I wasn't ready," the 31-year-old said.
Being Australia's strike bowler, Lee's poor form has hurt the team badly but the tearaway bowler said he has been trying his level best to strike on pitches that have little to offer to pacers.
"Being a fast bowler, especially over here (India) ... it's tough work, so definitely that work is paying off," he said.
