Dean Jones – a pioneer and an innovative cricketer

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In a tragic loss to the cricketing world, Dean Jones, fondly known as Deano, passed away due to cardiac arrest in Mumbai on 24 September 2020.

He was a Victorian cricketer who represented Australia in 52 Tests and 164 ODIs in the late 80s and early 90s. He was a top-order batsman who averaged close to 45 in both the formats. His legacy though, was beyond numbers for legends can rarely be defined using just stats.

Deano was regarded as the innovator in ODI cricket and the pioneer of modern limited-overs batting. He was the top-ranked ODI batsman for 4 consecutive years from 1989 to 1992.

With 918 rating points in 1991, he has 5th highest ODI ratings in the history of ODI cricket ahead of modern greats like Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers.

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Dean Jones will be remembered for many glorious moments playing for Australia. Be it being a member of Australia’s first World-Cup winning side in 1987, or being the guy who dared to ask Curtly Ambrose to remove his white wrist band, or showing the similar audacity in playing some gloriously innovative shots.

But nothing matches the endurance shown in the tied Test at Madras (now Chennai) in only his 5th Test match for Australia in 1986 against India. It was indeed an act of heroism in the extreme heat and humid weather conditions at Madras. Suffering from dehydration, Deano frequently vomited on the pitch during the course of his innings.

When things became unbearable, he asked his captain, Allan Border, to get retired hurt. Border spurred him on with a jibe, and then, Deano continued his innings with so much determination that he went on to score 210, spending more than 8 hours in the terrible conditions.

He later admitted that he did not remember anything after the score of 120. Deano was on auto-pilot. Scoring runs, vomiting, and then scoring some more runs.

He was in terrible shape when he got out. He had to be put on saline immediately after the innings. Deano survived, and so did his innings, which still is the highest score by an Australian in India.

A few years later, Dean Jones became ‘The Professor” in the commentary box and continued to spread the knowledge with his words. He was a workaholic, and it was only fitting that a day before his departure from this world, he was commentating on a match in IPL 2020.

There will be many cricketers with better numbers than him, but not many with a bigger stature in cricket.

Rest in peace, Deano!