Border, who turns 68 in July, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2016. “I walked into the neurosurgeon’s and he said straight up, ‘I’m sorry to tell you but you’ve got Parkinson’s’,” Border said. “‘Just the way you walked in. Your arms straight down by your side, hanging not swinging.’ He could just tell.”
“I’m a pretty private person and I didn’t want people to feel sorry for me sort of thing,” he told Newscorp. “Whether people care you don’t know. But I know there’ll come a day when people will notice.”
“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.'”
Border played 156 Tests between 1979 and 1994 – 93 of them as captain – and was the first batter to score 11,000 runs, finishing with 11,174. He also led Australia to victory in the 1987 World Cup, and ended up playing 273 ODIs. Since retiring, he has served as an Australian selector and been a broadcast commentator.
“No way am I going to get another 100, that’s for sure,” Border said. “I’ll just slip slowly into the west.”