Watch the Boxing Day Test between Australia and India LIVE on Fox Cricket, coverage starts Saturday at 9:30am AEDT!
Brett Lee has remembered the traumatic moment he tried valiantly to save Dean Jones’ life before the Australian cricket great passed away in Mumbai.
The pair were in hotel isolation in September to commentate on the Indian Premier League when Jones suffered a fatal stroke at 59 years of age.
Speaking on Fox Cricket during the Boxing Day Test, Lee recalled the tragic events of that day, and how he made the decision to continue working in India in Jones’ honour.
Watch Australia v India Test Series Live & Ad-Break Free During Play with the Fox Cricket commentary team. New to Kayo? Get your free trial now & start streaming instantly >
“On that particular day, everything was normal,” Lee said. “He was walking up and down the corridor, I finished breakfast 11.30 and I heard him coming up behind me. I moved out the way and he said ‘thank you, champion.’
“As he ran past me, I’m thinking ‘he’s 59 years of age, he’s fixed his knee and is working real hard on his fitness’.
“I went back to my room and got a call about 10 minutes later from the hotel staff that said ‘Mr Jones has fainted in his room’. I knew right then there was a problem.
“I sprinted to his room about 50 metres away and saw him unconscious and that’s when I started the CPR on him for close to an hour. Unfortunately we lost him when he went to hospital and it was one of the most horrific moments I’ve ever been through.”
READ MORE
Boxing Day LIVE: Follow day one of the second Test
Australia and India unite in moving tribute to Dean Jones at MCG Test
How Melbourne’s Christmas wish came true when it needed it most
Lee said he had never performed someone on CPR before Jones collapsed, and hopes to never have to do it again.
He said the fact the he was performing resuscitation on someone he was close to but it painfully difficult.
“When it’s (CPR) on someone you spend so much time with and you have that friendship, that mateship, that love for a guy that’s such an icon of Australian cricket, made it even worse,” he said.
“I just felt really sorry for his family and the people that were very close to him.”
Lee and Styris somehow mustered the strength to go to work four hours later and commentate on the IPL.
The pair were told by the network they were working for that they could have at least a week off work or, if they wished, return home to be with their families.
But for Lee and Styris, the latter was not an option.
Get all the latest cricket news, highlights and analysis delivered straight to your inbox with Fox Sports Sportmail. Sign up now!!!
FOLLOW ON PODCAST
Brad Haddin, Mike Hussey and Tom Morris discuss India’s 92 minutes of mayhem and preview the MCG Test
TO LISTEN, TAP HERE OR SUBSCRIBE IN ITUNES OR SPOTIFY
“Scotty and I took a moment after it happened and said, ‘what would Dean Jones want us to do?’” Lee said. “It was funny how we both came to the conclusion straight away.
“The words almost echoed in our ears; ‘get back to work you sooks’. And that was Dean Jones, that was him as a person.”
He added: “We thought, he loved working the dugout, he loved to work through India and Pakistan and throughout the world. People loved him over there and he just loved going to work so we thought we had to go to work for him. We have to front up as hard as it was and as hard as it will be — and we went to work four hours later.
“I can’t remember what happened in the game. I can’t remember who won or who was playing. It was all about Dean Jones. So it should have been.
“But that was a really tough moment, as there were a number of tough moments throughout that day.”
