LAHORE: Test cricketer Abid Ali has revealed how he felt the discomfort in his chest while batting against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa last month and was left shocked after it was revealed that he had a heart problem. He was speaking to PCB Digital, according to the press release shared by the Pakistan Cricket Board.
“I started to feel uneasiness and pain while batting. It worried me. When the pain intensified, I did some running and also consulted my batting partner Azhar Ali,” said Abid.
“….with the permission of the umpires, I left the field. But as I reached the rope, I started to vomit and got dizzy. The team physio and doctor Asad [Central Punjab’s team doctor] ran towards me, took off my pads and rushed me to a hospital,” added Abid.
He said that he was thankful to the Almighty as He had given Abid a second life. “I cannot thank the Almighty enough that I am sitting here today,” said Abid.
As he was on his way to the hospital, Abid was unaware of what was unfolding. He had taken the pain that he felt in his chest as a usual muscular one, but it was after the doctors put him under tests that the gravity of the situation unveiled.
“I was not aware that I was having a heart issue,” he said. “The doctors conducted ECG (electrocardiogram), which did not come out fine. They asked me how I was even walking and told me, ‘A normal person’s heart operates at 55 per cent, while mine was operating a 30 per cent. A valve of your heart is blocked and we will have to insert two stents. That left me in state of shock.”
However, according to the press release, the medical team of the PCB has put together a rehabilitation plan for Abid to help him in his return to the sport soon.
“The PCB medical team has prepared a rehab plan for me. God willing, I will try to hold the bat as early as I can and start training,” said Abid.
PCB Chairman Ramiz Raja has also asked the PCB medical team to set up defibrillators at the Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi stadia as well as the National High Performance Centre. He congratulated Abid on his recovery and said that the medical team had been advised to install defibrillators at the stadiums so that the doctors could use survival kits, should a situation arise in future.