By Daniel Brettig
Ricky Ponting described his “scary moment” on his return to work on Seven’s commentary team during the first Test against the West Indies in Perth following a health scare on day three.
Having been driven to hospital by Australia’s team doctor Leigh Golding after reporting feelings of dizziness to his commentary colleague Justin Langer and Seven’s head of cricket Chris Jones around after a commentary stint on Friday, Ponting underwent medical examinations before returning to his hotel on Friday night.
He spoke about the events of the past 24 hours when Seven’s broadcast of day four began.
“I probably scared a lot of people yesterday and had a little scary moment for myself to be honest,” Ponting said. “I was sitting in the comms box halfway through the stint, and got a couple of really short, sharp pains through my chest. I tried to stretch it out and get rid of it and probably didn’t give too much away when I was on-air.
“But I had a couple of those sort of incidents, got through the stint, got up, went to walk to the back of the commentary box and got a bit light-hearted and dizzy and grabbed the bench.”
After experiencing his discomfort, Ponting relayed how he was feeling to Langer and Jones.
“I mentioned to JL on the way out, he was commentating with me, that I’d had these pains in my chest,” Ponting said. “Chris Jones] heard me as well, and basically those two just grabbed me straight away and got me out of there, and 10 or 15 minutes later I was in hospital getting the best treatment I possibly could.
“I feel great this morning, I’m all shiny and new. But I think the bottom line is the fact I was willing to share it … as people of our age we’re probably a little bit reluctant to share much and talk much about our health especially, and that’s really a good learning curve for me yesterday, especially with what’s happened over the last 12 or 18 months with really close people around us.”
It has been a difficult year for Australian cricket in terms of heart health, after the game lost Ponting’s former cricket academy mentor Rod Marsh and then legendary spin bowler Shane Warne in quick succession in March.
