Vale cricketer Dean Jones, the man who thrilled Australia

Australian cricket legend Dean Jones has collapsed and died in a hotel in Mumbai, where he was commentating on the IPL.

The late, great Australian cricketer Dean Jones at his beloved MCG in 1997. Jones died suddenly in India where he was working as a TV commentator.

Australian cricket legend Dean Jones has collapsed and died at a hotel in Mumbai, where he was commentating on the IPL.

Fellow former cricketer Brett Lee was on the scene and performed CPR on the 59-year-old.

Jones was working for Star Sports in its Mumbai bunker and had been in good spirits after months in lockdown in Australia.

“It is with great sadness that we share the news of the passing away of Dean Mervyn Jones AM,” Star India confirmed through a statement. “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.”

Dean Jones acknowledges the cheers of the crowd as he posts his eighth Test century, against Pakistan at Adelaide Oval in 1990.

Australian coach Justin Langer said he was shocked by the loss of “a great player and a great bloke”.

“Deano was a true legend of Australian sport and world cricket, one of the great players and personalities in a golden time for the game,” Langer said.

“His role in the team’s World Cup win in 1987 and the 1989 Ashes under AB were a huge turning point for Australian cricket.”

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.

Dean Jones bats against India in the 1986 tied Test in Madras.

He claimed not to remember anything after making the first 120 and believes the drawn series under Allan Border’s captaincy 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.”

Dean Jones as a boy enjoying some beach cricket.

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.

Australian Test cricketers Merv Hughes and Dean Jones relax after a huge partnership in the fifth Test at Adelaide Oval against the West Indies in 1989. Jones made 216 and Hughes 72 not out.

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.

Dean Jones pictured in 2013 at Rupertswood Mansion, Sunbury the home of the Ashes.

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.