Aussie Cricket Great Dean Jones Dies

Australia -- Australian cricket is in mourning after former Test star Dean Jones died of a heart attack in India, aged 59.

Jones had been in Mumbai commentating on the Indian Premier League, and had appeared in coverage as recently as this week.

"Dean Jones was a hero to a generation of cricketers and will forever be remembered as a legend of this great game," Cricket Australia chairman Earl Eddings said.

"Anyone who watched cricket in the 1980s and 1990s will fondly recall his cavalier approach at the crease and the incredible energy and passion he brought to every game he played.

"Our thoughts and best wishes are with his wife Jane and daughters Isabella and Phoebe."

A classy right-handed batsman, Jones played in an era of great change in Australian cricket.

He played his first of 52 Tests against the mighty West Indies at Port of Spain in 1982 with his most famous innings his double century in the tied Madras Test in 1986.

There, he spent more than eight hours at the crease in 42C heat and severe humidity for his 210.

It earned him not only a place in Australian cricket folklore, but left him on a drip in hospital after losing eight kilos and any memory of the second half of his innings.

Jones was inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame in 2019.