While Allan Border was diagnosed with the Parkinson’s disease in 2016, he shared about the diagnosis in public last year only. (Reuters)
Having revealed about him suffering from Parkinson’s disease in 2023, Australian legend Allan Border has spent the last year in public life appearing at stadiums as well TV apart from doing commentary during the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy. While Border was diagnosed with the disease in 2016, he shared about the diagnosis in public last year only. The Australian legend has now shared about how he has relied on a medical machine for his active public life.
“It’s going as well as can be expected. My 100 per cent is a bit different to a lot of people’s. I’ve had deep brain stimulation – they actually put these electrode-type things into an area of your brain that they know hasn’t been affected by Parkinson’s. And you’ve got this little machine you can ramp up or down, and it’s an alternative to taking some drugs to manage it. I can get around, have a game of golf, go for a walk, those sorts of things. I won’t be running any marathons any time soon, but I’m coping pretty well,” Border told Sydney Morning Herald ahead of the fifth Test of Border-Gavaskar Trophy at Sydney.
With Australia having last won the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, a trophy named after Border and Indian legend Sunil Gavaskar, in 2014, the hosts will hope to win the series at Melbourne. Leading 2-1 in the five-Test series, the Aussie bowlers restricted India to a first innings total of 185 on Friday. Border shared his views on Australia managing to win the series with Sydney Morning Herald on Monday. The former Australian captain also gushed about chances of him giving the trophy to Australian skipper Pat Cummins on the final day of the Sydney Test. “I didn’t realise it had been 10 years. That would be the ideal scenario to give a bit of cheek to Mr Gavaskar, because he’s been giving it to me for a while. It’d be good to get one back. We’ve been the better team to date. You wouldn’t say that after the first game, but we went in a bit rusty, [and] hadn’t played Test cricket for eight months. It just took that game to get rid of the rust, and from there we’ve really dominated. So it’d be good to give Pat the trophy on January 7,” shared Border.
Australian batsman Steve Smith needs only 38 runs to become the fourth Australian to cross the 10,000-run mark in Test cricket. Border was the first Australian to achieve the feat during the third Test against West Indies in Australia in 1993. Border would then cross Gavaskar world record tally of 10,122 before retiring with a record tally of 11,174 runs. Border praised Smith’s persistence.
“It’s a testimony to the hard work he’s put in. He’s not the bloke where you say to your son, ‘Here’s a technique you’ve got to follow’, but it’s worked for him, and that’s a good sign that you know your game. He’s done it so well, because it’s not a technique for everyone. He’s in the top echelon. There’s prettier players, but not many who’ve got that record. Averaging 57 or so is in the top echelon ever, if you take one certain bloke [Bradman] out of it and he’s right up there with the very, very best,” Border said.
The 69-year-old also put Smith at par with Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara. “As far as Australia’s concerned, we’ve had Greg Chappell, Ricky Ponting, Steve Waugh, those sorts of players. But now Steve ranks equally with that group, no problems whatsoever. I’m a huge fan of Tendulkar and Lara, they were phenomenally good cricketers, but Steve is definitely up with that lot, for sure,” Border said.
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