Mike Veletta remembers late Dean Jones' 'superhuman' Chennai double century

But the former Australian batsman will always remember the day the late Dean Jones seemed to be just that during an effort steeped in cricketing folklore in Chennai's oppressive heat.

"He would come off for a break, we'd have a team of four around him," Veletta said.

"We'd undress him, put him in the shower, sit him down, dry him up, put his clothes and equipment back on, point him back in the direction of the wicket and say 'there you go Deano'. Off he would go again."

Little more than 34 years later to the day Veletta was recounting that very story with then-Australian wicketkeeper Tim Zoehrer, a hint of disbelief still in his mind.

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So too were cricket fans around the globe following Jones' sudden death due to a heart attack on Thursday night, for it remains one of the finest knocks in the game's storied history.

Jones would be dismissed for 210 - after facing 330 balls across eight hours and 22 minutes - in conditions so extreme he was taken to hospital to be put on a saline drip.

He was so dehydrated that keeping down the fluids given to him throughout a courageous innings was near impossible. At times he seemed on the verge of collapse, his head spinning and legs failing.

Yet bouts of retching and vomiting could not halt his bravery in 40 degree heat with a humidity reading beyond 90 per cent. Nor could stomach pain and leg cramps outweigh his character.

"That was a superhuman effort. It was a tied test, it was a significant event. For him to play such a massive role in that was a testament to his character. He was a massively tough competitor," Veletta said of the man who pipped him for the No. 3 spot in that Test.

"From an oppressive heat point of view, it was incredible. I'm sure everyone has heard stories from that innings. It was incredible, it was superhuman.

"He certainly had a point to prove to Allan Border and to Bob Simpson, to suggest he was worthy of that spot. Man, did he ever do that.

"There are some great memories of playing alongside him. I know as a batting partner, he always gave you a whole heap of confidence that he had the game under control. That's always a good thing to have out in the middle when it gets a bit tough.

"Especially in one-day cricket, he seemed to have the game under control when he was out in the middle, that's a special characteristic of a very good player.

"He was unique in many respects. He had a massive love for the game, he was super competitive. He was the kind of guy you would rather be on your side than against you. He had a happy knack of antagonising the opposition, and without a doubt that was part of his play."

Much like it was the day Jones' man of the match performance lifted the Prime Minister's XI to a famous victory over a star-studded West Indies outfit at Manuka Oval in 1992 - joining him in the middle that day was Veletta.

Or the day Jones faced Veletta's Canberra Comets in Bendigo, though the visitors would come away with the first win of their foray into the domestic one-day competition. Doing so against players of Jones' ilk only add to the magnitude of the occasion.

"Not only did he revolutionise a little bit of how we played one-day cricket, but he was always a thinker in terms of what the next step is," Veletta said. "He was always ahead of the pack. He was an innovative thinker."