Lee turns to Akram for reverse swing tips

Sydney, Apr 22 (UNI) Wasim Akram may be ignored back in his country but the former Pakistan captain is clearly in demand abroad and after Irfan Pathan, Australian speedster Brett Lee turned to the Sultan of Swing to master the art of reverse swing ahead of the Ashes.

''I think soon in the Ashes we will be seeing Brett Lee bowling reverse swing,'' an AAP report quoted Akram as saying.

Akram, one of the early practitioners of the art, said he gave tips to Lee and his other pace partners, which would help them improve but felt the bowlers needed to work real hard to truly master the art.

''It was about action, about seam, a lot of talk about reverse swing,'' Akram said.

''These guys want to improve, so they want to ask the top cricketers (for advice) and that's good. I did tell them the little details about reverse swing,'' he added.

Australia have appointed Troy Cooley as their new bowling coach, who is widely credited for the new found English ability to reverse swing the ball, to prepare themselves for the Ashes challenge and regain the trophy they lost last summer.

Brett Lee said the word of advice from Akram would help him and his pacemates but conceded that the art was still to be mastered.

''We spoke about a number of things from conventional swing to reverse swing and different lines and lengths,'' Lee said.

''He gave us a few pointers and ways to try and get the ball to swing a bit more. England did it very well last year when we played against them in the Ashes,'' he said adding that his team would look to reverse the trend in the coming series.

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