Richard Hadlee to undergo second surgery after cancer spreads to liver

Richard Hadlee is regarded as one of the greatest all-rounders New Zealand have ever produced. In 86 Tests and 115 ODIs, he scored 3124 runs and 1751 runs respectively. He also racked up 431 and 158 wickets. His career spanned 17 years and he played his last match against England in Birmingham back in 1990. However, the recent times for the retired cricketer hasn’t been joyful by any means.

Earlier in June, he was diagnosed with bowel cancer and he underwent a surgery followed by chemotherapy. To add to his agony, he is set to have another surgery after his cancer spread to his liver. Hadley’s family revealed that he had a tumour removed and was expected to recover after a couple of chemotherapies. Dianne Hadley, Richard’s wife provided the update on the state of his health.

“This week, Richard will undergo further surgery after secondary cancer was discovered in his liver. Medical advice is that it’s still at a very early stage and is operable,” Dianne was quoted as saying by english.manoramaonline.com.

Hadlee’s illustrious career

He made his debut in 1973 in New Zealand’s home Test against Pakistan in Wellington. In his very first innings, the Canterbury-born cricketer scored 46 runs and also went on to pick up the crucial wickets of Sadiq Mohammed and Asif Iqbal. He was also the first bowler to pick up 400 Test wickets and held the record for a significant time until Kapil Dev overhauled him in 1994.

In Test cricket, he boasts of a couple of centuries and 15 half-centuries. His highest score of 151 not-0ut came against Sri Lanka in Colombo back in 1987. The 67-year-old also has 25 four-wicket hauls and 36 five-fors in the longest format. For the time being, his family and the entire cricketing fraternity would be hoping for the legendary player to recover at the earliest.

[interaction id=”5b4b0673db31a01395269cbf”]

For more news and developments, stay tuned on CricTracker.com.