Mumbai:Former Australian cricketer Dean Jones died of cardiac arrest here on Thursday. He was 59.
Jones has been an active cricket analyst and a part of the Star Sports commentary team for the Indian Premier League 2020. He was in a bio-secure bubble in a hotel in Mumbai where he passed away.
''It is with great sadness that we share the news of the passing away of Dean Mervyn Jones AM. He died of a sudden cardiac arrest,'' Star Sports said in a statement.''We express our deep condolences to his family and stand ready to support them in this difficult time. We are in touch with the Australian High Commission to make the necessary arrangements,'' it added.
The cricket legend played 52 Tests and 164 ODIs for Australia during an international career which spanned 8 years between 1984 and 1992. He scored 3631 runs in red-ball cricket at an average of 46.55 with 11 hundreds and 14 half-centuries.
A gritty, attacking player, the Victorian featured in 164 ODIs and scored 6,068 runs, which included seven centuries and 46 fifties. His most memorable Test innings came in 1986, when in the heat and humidity of Chennai, he battled exhaustion and illness to make a heroic 210 in what would be only the second tied Test ever.
It was just his third Test, coming two years after his debut against West Indies in 1984. With plenty to prove, he came out at No 3, and stayed in the middle for 330 minutes, despite being sick on the field and finding himself in hospital at the end of the knock.
Jones went on to make 10 more hundreds, with a career-best 216 against West Indies in Adelaide in 1989. But it was in ODIs that he really made his name, gaining a reputation as an attacking batsman and a fast runner between the wickets and, by his own admission, also the first player to wear sunglasses on the field.
TNCA condoles death of Aussie cricketer Dean Jones
Chennai:The Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) today condoled the death of legendary Australian cricketer and commentator Dean Jones, who died in Mumbai following a massive cardiac arrest.
TNCA Secretary R S Ramasaamy, in his message said the TNCA deeply condoles the sad and untimely demise of cricketer and commentator Dean Jones.
An extraordinary cricketer known for his gutsy batting, running between the wickets and fielding, his most memorable innings at Chennai was in the 1986 hsitoric Tied Test where he scored 210, battling illness and dehydration.(UNI)
