Australian cricket great Allan Border diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease

Allan Border poses at the unveiling of his statue at The Gabba in 2021. Photo / Getty Images

Former Australia captain Allan Border has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and has said it will be a ‘miracle’ if he lives to 80.

Border, the first player to score 11,000 runs in tests and who captained Australia to an improbable one-day international World Cup victory in 1987, said he received the diagnosis in 2016 but chose to hide it from the public.

“I’m a pretty private person and I didn’t want people to feel sorry for me,” the 68-year-old told News Corp. “Whether people care, you don’t know. But I know there’ll come a day when people will notice.”

Parkinson’s is an incurable disease that causes progressive brain damage, with common symptoms of loss of muscle control, tremors, muscle rigidity and slowness of movement.

“I get the feeling I’m a hell of a lot better off than most,” Border said. “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.”

After his debut in 1978, the left-hander batter scored 27 centuries in 156 tests. He took over the captaincy from Kim Hughes in the summer of 1984-85 and is regarded as reviving Australia’s on-field fortunes with a World Cup victory in India in 1987 and leading an unfancied Australian team to an Ashes series victory in England two years later.

Border retired in 1994 with a 50.56 batting average placing him among the enduring greats of the sport.