Former New Zealand cricket all-rounder Chris Cairns is on life support at a Canberra hospital after recently collapsing with a health problem in Australia, New Zealand media reported on Tuesday.
According to a report in ‘New Zealand Herald’, Cairns “suffered a major medical emergency – an aortic dissection (a tear in the body’s main artery) – in Canberra last week”.
“He has reportedly undergone several operations while in hospital, but has not responded to treatment as hoped,” the report in New Zealand Herald said.
Chris Cairns International Career
Chris Cairns is regarded as one of the greatest all-rounders to have ever played for New Zealand. He played 62 tests, 215 one-day internationals, and two Twenty20 matches for New Zealand between 1989-2006. In 215 ODIs, Cairns smashed 4950 runs at an average of 29.46 including 201 wickets at 32.80. He has 218 Test scalps by his name at an impressive average of 29.40. Cairns’ career-best bowling performance in Tests was 7/27 against the West Indies in 1999.
Cairns’ most memorable innings came in the finals of ICC KnockOUt Trophy 2000. He scored an unbeaten 102 to pull off the victory for New Zealand against India in Kenya. He also became the first player to score a century in an ICC Champions Trophy final in a winning cause.
Cairns was later the subject of allegations of match-fixing in India as captain of the Chandigarh Lions in the defunct Indian Cricket League in 2008. He denied any wrongdoing and fought several legal battles to clear his name. His father Lance also represented New Zealand in cricket.