Allan Border opens up on his battle with Parkinson’s disease

Aussie cricket legend Allan Border has spoken in a live TV interview on Fox Cricket about his battle with a degenerative illness.

Australian cricket legend Allan Border has opened up on living his life with Parkinson’s disease.

In July last year, Border revealed the shocking news that he’d been battling degenerative disease for the past seven years.

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Parkinson’s is a neurodegenerative disorder that affects the dopamine-producing ("dopaminergic”) neurons in a specific area of the brain called substantia nigra, according to Parkinson’s Foundation.

It can present as tremors, slowness of movement, limb stiffness and balance problems and symptoms generally develop slowly over years.

While the cause of the illness is currently unknown, there is no known cure.

The legendary hard-nosed captain said at the time he was “not scared” a sentiment he echoed in a chat with Fox Cricket’s Mark Howard.

“Not so much scared,” Border said. “But I am worried about that slow decline in the process. I’ve taken the route, the less I know the better.

“Jane (his wife) has gone the other way. So I do get lectured quite often ‘you haven’t been for a walk in a couple of days’, or haven’t done this or haven’t done that. Or ‘what are you doing drinking all those beers. All the stuff I should be doing.
“I’ve been kept on the straight and arrow by her and a good medical team.”

Allan Border was interviewed live on Fox Cricket. Photo: Fox Sports

Asked if the illness had changed his approach with people, Border said: “Not too much.

“I’m getting a lot of well wishes which is embarrassing but good. I don’t know whether I’ve become softer in my approach in how I talk to people.”

Howard revealed that Border had sent a text message to Pakistan cricket legend Wasim Akram earlier in the summer saying “how much you loved him”.

“We were with him at the time and he was completely overwhelmed,” Howard recalled. “We were like ‘that’s a beautiful thing AB has sent though and it had a massive impact on him.”

Border has been battling the illness since 2016.

He revealed said the first sign that something was amiss was that he felt some soreness in his hip and suffered a dead leg, “just thinking it was age catching up with me”.

“I had to go and see a neurosurgeon and as soon as I walked in the door, he just said ‘look Allan, I can just tell you’ve got Parkinson’s. I’m sorry to tell you’,” Border said.

“You could have knocked me over with a feather basically. I knew something wasn’t quite right but I didn’t think it was that. To be honest, I didn’t know much about Parkinson’s and the first thing that came to my mind was Muhammad Ali lighting the Olympic cauldron (at the 1996 Atlanta Games).

“I just thought ‘oh my god’. It was just a strange feeling and strange trip home with Jane, my better half, and just sort of thought ‘what does this actually mean?’”

There are several famous people with Parkinson’s including Muhammad Ali former US president George HW Bush before their deaths, as well comedian Billy Connolly, actor Michael J. Fox and metal singer Ozzy Osbourne.

Captain Grumpy is a true Aussie legend. Photo by Ben Radford/Getty Images

Allan Border in action.

Now 68 years old, Border said overall, he had been healthy.

“My health’s good,” Border said. “Apart from having Parkinson’s, my health is good.

“I get checked out fairly regularly and do what I’m told with the doctors.

“The rest of the body is good, it’s just the Parkinson’s and dealing with that, like a lot of people have to.

“But generally speaking, I’m in pretty good shape. I still play golf, still go for walks, I still do all the things I’ve been doing. Not running any marathons any more but apart from that, things are pretty good.”

Border is one of the all-time greats of Australian cricket after a remarkable career where he scored 11,174 runs in 156 Test match and 6524 runs in 273 ODIs.

He holds the record for the most consecutive matches as captain of a team at 93 Test matches.

After taking over the captaincy during a tumultuous time in Australian cricket, Border led Australia to World Cup glory at the 1987 World Cup and in the 1989 Ashes.

Since retirement, Border has been a long-time member of the Fox Sports commentary team.