- Ponting felt “all sparkly and new” when he returned to Perth Stadium for day four of play.
- The 47-year-old experienced severe chest aches and lightheadedness while commentating.
Ricky Ponting, one of the most successful cricket captains in history, admitted he experienced severe aches and lightheadedness while commentating on Day Three of the ongoing Australia-West Indies Test.
Ponting returned to the commentary box on Friday after receiving hospital treatment and described his heart scare.
Before the decision was made for Ponting to leave for treatment, News Corp stated that Justin Langer (JL), a former Australian player, coach, and current commentary partner, assisted the great cricketer in finding Leigh Golding downstairs.
According to an ICC report, Ponting felt “all sparkly and new” when he returned to Perth Stadium for day four of play.
Before the start of day four on Saturday, Ponting acknowledged on the Channel 7 broadcast, “I certainly scared a lot of people yesterday and had a scary moment for myself.” “I experienced a few fairly brief and intense chest aches while watching in the commentary box on day three, halfway through the stay. I likely didn’t want to divulge too much when I was on TV and attempted to stretch it out and get rid of it.” Ponting praised Langer and Channel 7 Executive Producer Chris Jones for their quick thinking as they took him to the hospital in the car driven by Dr. Golding.
“I had a couple of those incidents, got through the stint and went to walk to the back of the commentary box and got light-headed and dizzy and grabbed the bench. I mentioned to JL on the way out, who was commentating with me, that I had had these pains in my chest and Chris Jones heard me and just reacted straight away and got me out of there. 10 or 15 minutes later, I was in the hospital getting the best treatment that I possibly could,” said Ponting.
Although the 47-year-old legend admitted he was on high alert given the year in Australian cricket, which saw Shane Warne and Rod Marsh pass away from shock heart attacks and Ryan Campbell briefly put into an induced coma, Ponting said he had a “relaxing” afternoon in the hospital and a good sleep to recover.
“I think the bottom line is, the fact that I was willing to share it with JL and the fact that your mate looks after you, I think as people of our age, we are a little reluctant to share much or talk about our health. I think that is a good learning curve for me yesterday, especially with what has happened in the last 12-18 months to really close people around us,” added Ponting.
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