WHEN Rup-Minyip’s A Grade captain Travis Hair walked out into the middle during the one-day final against Homers two weeks ago, the last thing he expected to happen was that he would have a heart attack.
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“I’ve never had one and it’s not something you expect to happen when you are 40 and still fit,” he said.
Hair was batting against Homers when he felt a pain in his chest and back.
He batted out his innings and rested in the changerooms at City Oval.
Despite feeling ordinary, he fielded out the one-day grand final before heading to Wimmera Base Hospital late that night.
“I didn’t know I was having heart attack – I’ve never had one so I didn’t know what I should have been looking out for,” he said.
“I was flown out the next morning to Melbourne where I had surgery.”
Hair had to watch his side’s grand final loss to Homers from the sidelines at the weekend, and said it was tough to not be playing.
He said he had even considered trying to get out to the middle for a bat.
“I was hoping to be a chance of playing, but it does put cricket into perspective,” he said.
“You want to play with your mates and when you see them out there you feel bad that you can’t do anything, but that’s what it had to be this year.”
Hair said he had received plenty of support from his teammates.
“We try and win games of cricket for each other, we are all mates,” he said.
“It’s hard to watch, especially when I see us lose some wickets.
“It could have been worse and I could have been missing a whole lot more than just a grand final.”
