Vinod Kambli had gotten fans and friends concerned as a video of him in an inebriated state went viral on social media. In the video, Kambli is seen asking help from passersby to get off his bike and then he is helped get away.
Kambli has had issues with his health over the years, even suffering a heart attack in 2013 despite undergoing angioplasty the year before to clear two blocked arteries.
Two of Kambli's close, old cricketing friends - school classmate Ricky and his brother, First-Class cricket umpire Marcus Couto - paid a visit to the 52-year-old on Thursday at his fifth-floor flat at the Jewel Cooperative Society in Bandra, deeply concerned about his condition, which has been deteriorating for several years.
"I'm good. By the grace of God, I'm surviving. I'm fit and fine. I'm ready to bat at No. 3 (jokingly). I'll hit the spinners outside the ground like we used to play at Shivaji Park!" Kambli told his friend Marcus when quizzed about his health.
Describing their emotional meeting, Marcus said, "We went to meet him for 10 minutes but ended up being with him for nearly five hours. While spending almost the entire day with his family, we had home-cooked lunch and tea, all made lovingly by his wife Andrea.
We reminisced about some of his best knocks- facing the fearsome West Indies quicks in the 1990s, how he attacked Shane Warne (at Sharjah in 1994), and listened to songs. He was in a jolly mood throughout our stay in his house and regaled us by singing old Hindi movie songs! While he has a few health issues, he didn't appear to be as fat as he looks in the video and looked in decent shape. He was eating well too. He told us: 'I am fine and fit.'”
Marcus also quizzed Kambli about the video circulating on social media.’ About the same, Kambli stated that it was from a few weeks ago. At that time, he had gone down to buy something and suddenly felt dizzy, but it wasn't as if he was drunk or something.
"He was giving batting tips to his son, Cristiano, who is also a left-handed batter like his father. Andrea, meanwhile, was helping out the kids with their homework," said Marcus.
Kambli also spoke with his former teammate and current BCCI general manager, Abey Kuruvilla, as well as Ajinkya Naik, the newly appointed president of the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA).
Vinod Kambli was once touted as the next big thing in Indian cricket given his talent with the willow. He made his India debut in 1991 and became the first Indian batter to score consecutive double centuries in Tests in 1993.
However, his Test career ended by the time he was 23 years old in 1995, but he remained active in ODI cricket. He played a total of 17 Tests and 104 ODIs for India from 1991-2000. He scored 1084 Test and 2477 ODI runs and also featured in the 1992 and 1996 World Cups for India.
(Times of India inputs)
