Lee warns Aussies not to bait controlled aggressor KP during Ashes

SYDNEY - Former Australian Test fast bowler Brett Lee has warned Ricky Ponting’s team to cut out the insults and not sledge England’s best batsman Kevin Pietersen during the forthcoming Ashes series, which commences from next month.

Pietersen has turned into Australia’s favourite target for pre-Ashes sledging with John Buchanan, the former Australia coach, last week saying he could be a major problem for the England management posing the “potential to be fragmentary and an individualist”.

Strauss hit back on Monday accusing Buchanan of not being close enough to England to judge Pietersen.

Ponting had his own take on Pietersen on Tuesday by stating he “is a big question mark” for England a week before they depart for Australia.

But Lee, who fell foul of the Australian model of the ideal team-mate, has defended Pietersen and believes the barbs could backfire.

“There are guys you can stir up and get stuck into and there are others you leave alone,” the Telegraph quoted Lee, as saying.

“Sachin Tendulkar is a guy you don’t want to chat to period, because he will knuckle down, same as Brian Lara. Kevin Pietersen has controlled aggression and he likes it when someone has a chat to him. He takes it personally and it fires him up and he’ll want to score a big hundred. He might be a slightly different character to the norm - he might be away from the side and doing his own thing - but that happens in everyday life. I’d always back Kevin Pietersen to come out and do well,” he added. (ANI)