Dean Jones: The man who lived cricket

Shortly after lunch on Thursday, the 59-year-old Dean Jones had passed away, a massive heart attack claiming the life of a man who lived cricket.
Former Australia batsman Dean Jones (File Photo | PTI)
Former Australia batsman Dean Jones (File Photo | PTI)

Scott Styris was wiping away tears even as the cameras were trained on him. Brett Lee gamefully carried on as he paid tribute to Dean Jones. Lee, only a few hours earlier, had administered CPR to Jones. Yet, here he was... talking about the life and times of one of the game's first great modern pioneers.

On Wednesday night, Jones was on air, dissecting the Indian Premier League match between Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders. Shortly after lunch on Thursday, the 59-year-old had passed away, a massive heart attack claiming the life of a man who lived cricket.  

Just as well because it can be argued that he breathed new life into it as the sport moved away from the traditional five-day format to the brave, new world of ODIs in the 1980s. And it came at a time when Australia was desperately searching for new stars as they sought to win the World Cup for the first time. His on-field energy, the importance he paid to run between the wickets and the ability to find the gaps were all futuristic.

Melanie Jones, a cricketer-turned-pundit, summed it up perfectly. "Stats are great but they don’t say how he, like not a lot of others, changed the way the game was played," she noted. "The speed between wickets, the ability to manipulate the field, the energy in the field and the development of so many other players. What a contribution to the game."

It can be said that the vision he brought to Australian cricket elevated them and put them on the path of greatness that finally led them to dominate the white-ball game for more than a decade both sides of the millennium.

Sample this: in the timeframe (January 1984 to April  1994) he played for them, he was the world's second-highest run-getter in ODIs (behind Desmond Haynes), his batting average of 44.61 was the best for anyone who had scored more than a 1000 runs and his strike rate of 72.56 was the sixth-highest for an Australian (over 1000 runs). It was almost as if he was playing a different game compared to anybody else at the time.

All that meant an entire generation was growing up idolising him. One only had to skim through the social media thoughts of the past few generations of Australian cricketers to arrive at this conclusion. "He was someone I looked upto..." Ricky Ponting posted.

"Growing up as a young kid watching his highlights inspired me to play the game...," Peter Siddle wrote. "Grew up idolising you..." were the thoughts of Jason Gillespie. "Had the poster of the great man in my room as a kid..." was Glenn Maxwell's comment.

After leaving behind his bat, he also made a casual observer of the game fall in love with the sport because of the way he commentated about the sport. To the many Indian viewers who were fresh out of schools in the 21st century, Jones was one of the first voices they heard and subsequently fell in love with. His voice carried authority.

But Indians had fallen in love with Jones even before ODI cricket was a thing. To be precise, he entered into Indian cricket's vast folklore thanks to his heroics in the tied Test at Chepauk.

On two extremely hot and humid September days in Madras in 1986, the Australian batted and batted and batted. He kept losing body fluids as Madras' brutal weather took a toll on his body. But the Victorian battled bouts of vomiting, dehydration and the principles of biology to play an innings that no Australian had ever played before on Asian soil.

The 210, his first Test ton, was an innings of such Everestian proportions the Chepauk crowd had no other choice but to applaud it. That this was his first Test since being recalled to the side after two-and-a-half years made it all the more special to him.

Australia's coach Bob  Simpson, who had a ringside seat to that tied Test, remarked that 'it was the gutsiest effort I  have ever seen'.

Maninder Singh, who played for the hosts that day, told this daily: "I became a fan after watching him play that Test. It was just his spirit and the heart he showed. Those conditions...  they were brutal, very, very hard."

Maninder, who went on a longer jog than normal to process the news, said he will remember Jones for many reasons. "He stood for a lot of things," Maninder said. "Above all, he always had a smile on his face. That smile..."

In the Star Sports dugout studio, the suit Jones wore on Wednesday night was placed on the chair he usually sat on. His customary red book was kept on the table as a mark of respect. On the field, Kings XI and RCB carried on. It is what he would have wanted, Lee said.

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