‘Shiny and new’ Ponting returns to commentary after health scare

Ricky Ponting returned for commentary duties on Saturday after being taken to hospital with chest pains during the ongoing first Test between Australia and the West Indies.

The 47-year-old felt chest pains, before lunch time on Friday, and was taken to the hospital for a check-up.

"I probably scared a lot of people yesterday and had a little scary moment for myself, to be honest," Ponting said.

"I was sitting in the comms box halfway through the stint, and got a couple of really short, sharp pains through my chest. I tried to stretch it out and get rid of it and probably didn´t give too much away when I was on air.

"But I had a couple of those sort of incidents, got through the stint, got up, went to walk to the back of the commentary box and got a bit light-hearted and dizzy and grabbed the bench."

Ponting mentioned his discomfort to close friend and former opener Justin Langer, who insisted he go to hospital.

"I feel great this morning, I´m all shiny and new," he said.

"But I think the bottom line is the fact I was willing to share it... that´s really a good learning curve for me yesterday, especially with what´s happened over the last 12 or 18 months with really close people around us."

Earlier, Ponting's colleagues and production representatives reportedly said the cricketer was taken to the hospital as a precautionary measure after he was feeling unwell.

"Ricky Ponting is unwell and will not be providing commentary for the remainder of today’s coverage," the production's spokesperson said yesterday.

Ponting is not the first cricketer to have suffered heart-related problems. Earlier, Brian Lara and Saurav Ganguly had the same issues.

Also, Australia's legendary leg-spinner Shane Warne passed away after a heart attack earlier this year. 

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