Fast bowling great Brett Lee fought to save Aussie cricket legend Dean Jones, who died of cardiac arrest
Michael Slater has revealed the lengths fellow commentator Brett Lee went to in caring for Dean Jones while they waited for ambulances to arrive at the scene. Lee later returned to television to pay tribute to the Aussie great.
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Brett Lee performed CPR on cricket legend Dean Jones for “half an hour” before ambulances arrived, but was unable to save his life.
Fellow cricket great Michael Slater, who is also working on Star Sports’ IPL coverage, said Lee was “beside himself” as he revealed the lengths the former fast bowler went to to care for Jones before ambulances in Mumbai arrived at the scene.
Lee was with Jones in Mumbai in the IPL bunker, while the likes of Slater and England great Kevin Pietersen are in Dubai calling the matches.
Jones died of a massive heart attack, aged 59, sparking shock and sadness around the cricketing globe.
“Brett Lee contacted Kevin Pietersen. Brett was beside himself and was just wanting some friends and support because he’d worked on Deano for half an hour before the ambos came and unfortunately he passed out,” Slater told Channel 7’s Sunrise program.
“I’ve got to say it was one of the hardest broadcasts I’ve ever had to do.
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“I think like the guys in Mumbai, they went on and got in the dug out … we all were doing it for Deano today.
“What a character. You spend so much time away together and you become brothers. And we’ve lost a superstar today and we’ve lost him too young.”
Lee returned to television screens just hours after Jones’ death alongside ex-New Zealand cricket star Scott Styris, describing Jones as an “absolute legend”.
“I think the thing we want to say about Deano is he would have wanted us to be here tonight,” Lee said.
“It’s pretty much the ‘Select Deano’ we call it. It’s Deano’s dugout tonight.
“He is an absolute legend. Firstly to his family and friends we send our condolences. It’s a real tough day for everyone, not only for his close mates ... and the whole cricketing world in general.
“What Deano would’ve wanted is for us to come out here in the dugout, get it done, have some fun for the game we all love.”
Styris described how Jones had exercised in the hotel that morning, which had been booked out by the broadcaster with crew keeping to a bubble format.
He said he had breakfast with him and watched him run down the hallway to keep fit.
“That was his way of keeping fit because of course we are in the bubble here in Mumbai. Who would have thought merely a couple of hours later he had this heart attack or some sort of cardiac problem. It’s incredibly sad.
“He thought this to be the Deano show really. He’s on to me every day with new ideas on how we can make it better. So I think it’s the right thing to do to be here, it’s gonna be hard but we hope to make him feel proud tonight.”
Earlier, Lee had shared on Twitter it was a “lot of fun” in the commentary dug out where he was working with Jones.
Star India was quick to release a statement to reveal Jones’ death.
“It is with great sadness that we share the news of the passing away of Dean Mervyn Jones AM,” Star India confirmed. “He died of a sudden cardiac arrest. We express our deep condolences to his family and stand ready to support them in this difficult time. Dean Jones was one of the great ambassadors of the game associating himself with Cricket development across South Asia. He was passionate about discovering new talent and nurturing young cricketers.
“He will be sorely missed by everyone at Star and his millions of fans across the globe.”
A brilliant, attacking batsman, he averaged 46.55 in his 52 Test matches for Australia and scored 11 centuries, including a double century in the 1986 tied Test in Madras which is celebrated as one of the most courageous in Australian cricket history.
He was so dehydrated at the end of the innings he was rushed into an ambulance gravely ill but pulled through that scrape.
“If I had to die for the love of the game, what else would be a better place than a cricket ground wearing my baggy green cap,” he said recently.
He claimed not to remember anything after making the first 120 and believes the series win under Allan Border changed the course of Australian and Indian cricket.
“We had never really had a cricket match that defined the two countries’ relationship,” he said.
“We were the first Australian team that really enjoyed going to India, that really enjoyed the people – so much so that we made special efforts to get involved in their culture.
“Our official photograph for the tour was done in front of the Taj Mahal, and from then on we’ve gone to the effort to go to one of the landmarks of the country and do a photo there. We really enjoyed the people and the food and we started to get on.
“Every other Australian team had said, ‘You’re going to get sick, there’s millions of people, it’s hard work, the grounds are awful and they’ll turn square.’ And now look where it is. Now it’s called the Border-Gavaskar Trophy – two of the great guns.”
Jones loved the Baggy Green and was chuffed a few years back to receive a numbered commemorative bag to keep it in. Audacious and occasionally impetuous, Jones took the game on like few before him taking on ODI cricket.
He played 164 games for Australia averaging 44.5 and scoring a century but is perhaps best known for asking Curtley Ambrose to take his sweat bands off when bowling. He joked that all his teammates turned on him for upsetting the big West Indian who proceeded to tear through the Australian line up.
It was one of the regrets of his life that he missed out on the T20 phenomenon. A great fielder on top of his attacking batting, he would have been made for the game.
Jones is understood to have exercised in the morning and gone back to his room with hotel staff to assist him with a technical matter when he slumped into a chair.
He was one of Australia’s most recognised former cricketers in India and loved the country. Just last week he messaged from his hotel room saying how excited he was to be back on the road and how strange life was in quarantine.
The commentators were not allowed to leave the hotel and were confined to their rooms without access to the bar, pool or other facilities.
Jones was sharing the hotel with Brian Lara, Scott Styris and Graham Swann. Lee was reportedly distressed after losing his colleague.
Jones was excited last week about a software security venture he was involved with which has sold facial recognition biosecurity which is being used by teams in lockdown situations.
Despite having a number of coaching jobs in Pakistan and Afghanistan Jones had become frustrated in recent years at his inability to get a job in Australian and had a major falling out with Cricket Victoria.
Jones was married to his wife Jane for 24 years and was extremely proud of his children.
Originally published as Fast bowling great Brett Lee fought to save Aussie cricket legend Dean Jones, who died of cardiac arrest