Former Australia captain Allan Border has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and said it would be a ‘miracle’ if he lived to be 80.
The 67-year-old Border, who once held the record for most runs in test cricket and captained Australia to World Cup glory in 1987, said he was diagnosed with the disease in 2016 but attempted to hide it from the public.
Parkinson’s, for which there is no cure, causes progressive brain damage. Common symptoms are loss of muscle control, tremors, muscle rigidity and slowness of movement.
“I’m a pretty private person and I didn’t want people to feel sorry for me sort of thing. Whether people care you don’t know. But I know there’ll come a day when people will notice,” Border told News Corp.
“I get the feeling I’m a hell of a lot better off than most. At the moment, I’m not scared, not about the immediate future anyway.
“I’m 68 (in July). If I make 80, that’ll be a miracle. I’ve got a doctor friend and I said if I make 80 that’ll be a miracle. He said, ‘That will be a miracle.’”
One of cricket’s all-time greats, the test series between India and Australia – the Border-Gavaskar trophy – is named after him and former India opener Sunil Gavaskar.
Australia fast bowler Mitchell Starc told reporters at Lord’s in London : “It’s sad to hear (that) of one of the greats of Australian cricket, a big character in the world of cricket, and our wishes go out to AB and to the family as well.”
Border played 156 tests for Australia and was the first batsman to cross the 11,000-runs mark, finishing with 11,174 which included 27 centuries.
“No way am I going to get another hundred, that’s for sure,” Border said. “I’ll just slip slowly into the west.”
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