The message from a friend in Australia simply said, “Dean Jones died.” To say it was a shock is putting it mildly.
I hadn’t heard that he was ailing, I hadn’t heard that he had any medical issues but all of a sudden, a man that I can only remember as one who enjoyed life and was always laughing and joking except when it came to his various jobs within the game of cricket, was gone.
I met Dean when he was a fresh-faced enthusiastic young man just going into the Australian senior team set-up. I remember after a day’s practise at the WACA in Perth when the West Indies team was heading back to The Sheraton hotel where both teams stayed those days, Dean for whatever reason was still at the ground and asked for a lift back with us in one of the cars allocated to the team.
Here is this young Australian, who we hardly knew, bumming a lift with us back to the hotel and having no qualms about doing it either.
From that day, I discovered the type of person Dean Jones was. Affable, enthusiastic about the game and easily friendly. As time went on I added a few more adjectives like ‘innovative’ – the first person I can remember to wear shades on a cricket field because of the sun; ‘combative’ – why rile Curtly Ambrose by asking him to take off his sweatband? I still can’t imagine why he did that. All I remember is, after the game, he just laughing it off, and here was Curtly Ambrose, all worked up.
Dean could be undiplomatic at times, which made him a misunderstood man by many. I remember when he referred to Hashim Amla in Colombo, Sri Lanka once during commentary as “the terrorist”.
What a furore that caused and words such as racist were thrown in his direction. Well that’s definitely not the word I would categorise Dean as.
Dean would have said it without thinking too deeply and saying it to hopefully cause some giggles, not because he was being cruel or meant to do harm. I can only hope people eventually got to know him a bit more while he occupied the coach’s chair in various parts of the world.
My heartfelt condolences go out to his wife, Jane his two daughters and the rest of his family and friends.
(As told to K Shriniwas Rao)
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