'If I Make 80, That'll Be a Miracle'- Allan Border Reveals His Battle With Parkinson's Disease
Allan Broder captained Australia in the 80s [Source: Twitter]
Legendary Australian cricketer Allan Border has revealed that he has been suffering from Parkinson's, stating that it will be a miracle if gets close to 80. Border, 68, was diagnosed with the life-threatening disease back in 2016, but he has been hiding it since then in order to avoid public sympathy.
However, the former Aussie skipper had feared that people would notice it one day. His trusted Fox Sports colleague Steve Crawley told Border at dinner last week that his good friends had already noticed.
"I'm a pretty private person and I didn't want people to feel sorry for me sort of thing," Allan Border told News Corp.
Although the gritty southpaw isn't bothered much about his immediate future but admits that 'it will be a miracle' if he survives till the age of 80.
"I get the feeling I'm a hell of a lot better off than most. At the moment I'm not scared, not about the immediate future anyway. I'm 68. If I make 80, that'll be a miracle. I've got a doctor friend and I said if I make 80, that'll be a miracle, and he said, 'That will be a miracle.' No way am I going to get another 100, that's for sure. I'll just slip slowly into the west," the ex-cricketer added.
For the uninitiated, Parkinson's is a central nervous system disorder which affects body movements, including tremors.
One of the most significant personalities in the history of Australian cricket, Border took up captaincy when the Aussie Test team was in absolute shambles following the retirements of stalwarts like Greg Chappell, Rodney Marsh, Dennis Lillie.
Border inculcates grit and character in the Aussie team, and harnessed them into one of the best teams in the world at the turn of the 80s.
He also led from the front, smashing 11,000+ runs, before retiring as the leading scorer in Test cricket at the time.
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