Sunshine Coast all-rounder Alecz Day says he is as fit and healthy as ever, just over a year after suffering a heart attack.
The 30-year-old was on Monday announced as the ‘local hero’ for the new Coastal Marlins team, which will compete in the inaugural Brisbane Premier League.
Each of the eight franchises will boast a marquee cricketer from their area, along with team-mates selected in an auction on April 16.
Day felt privileged to be the designated ‘local hero’ for the Marlins.
“It’s a nice honour,” he said.
“I’ll probably have a bit of input to how we select a team. The owners will probably lean on me to help sign some guys who might be hidden away.”
Day has completed a stunning comeback, after collapsing at a Sunshine Coast Scorchers training session in January last year.
Club-mates rushed to his aid and performed CPR for almost 15 minutes before an ambulance arrived with a defibrillator.
Months of recovery followed.
There were no guarantees he would even be able to play sport after the incident, but there were some hopes he could see action in a year.
Remarkably, he returned to cricket three months ahead of schedule and played a full season for the Sunshine Coast Scorchers in the state competition.
He also plays hockey with Buderim in the Sunshine Coast competition and with Valley in the Brisbane competition.
Day said he’s in great shape.
“I feel as fit and healthy as I ever have, I’m back playing cricket and hockey at first grade level.”
“It’s at the point now where it is behind me and I’m just trying to move forward and get back to a normal life,” he said.
Day will take life-long medication but said he’s lucky to have recovered as well as he has.
“Everything fell into place quite nicely,” he said.
“I am aware of a few different scenarios involving people who went through a similar thing to what I went through …. I realise I was fortunate to recover the way I did.”
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He did have some doubts during his recuperation.
“At first I wasn’t able to walk 50m down the hallway at the hospital,” he said. “That shocks you a bit.”
“But three weeks later I was walking around the block.
“Once you see the progress you get that confidence that you’re going to be all right in the end.”
He was jolted by his first attempt at serious exercise but overcame that hurdle in rapid time.
“When I started running again, I did 2km and was down on my haunches sucking in the air and I was like ‘please tell me this isn’t going to be the way’.
“Then a month-and-a-half later I ran 10km.
“So, I have come back quite quickly.”
Day could be a damaging player for the Marlins.
He is renowned for big hitting and craft spin bowling.
He was the state premier grade player of the year in 2018 and has played for the Queensland Second XI, and for Wellington in the New Zealand first-class competition.
The Brisbane Premier League, for seniors and juniors, will run during spring.
Open age players can nominate for the auction, which does not include real money, while junior players can nominate for a draft.
Teams include Darling Downs Dingoes, Bayside Pirates, Moreton Magic, Northern Kings, Southern Cyclones, Gold Coast Waveriders, Western Power and the Coastal Marlins.
The competition was essentially formed by Sunshine Coast product Nick Fitzpatrick and Joel Hamilton, who are founders of the Australian Cricket Institute.
Fitzpatrick, a former Sunshine Coast representative, is one of the part-owners of the Marlins. The team’s other owners include small business owner Dylan Pinkstone, his brother Jared and local lawyer Travis Schultz.
