The Hindu : Simon Jones back in England squad

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 25, 2004

Sport

Sport - Cricket

Simon Jones back in England squad

By Ted Corbett

LONDON, FEB. 24. Simon Jones, the attacking bowler now touring India with England `A,' has been called into the England squad for West Indies, just 16 months after the terrible injury which threatened to end his career.

By a happier coincidence he will be making a tour to the Caribbean where his father Jeff, a left-arm fast bowler quite unlike his right-handed son, made his biggest Test impact back in 1968.

Jones took 10 wickets in the match against Tamil Nadu which England `A' won by a huge margin and it is this sort of quick bowling which has given him the chance to fill the spot deliberately left vacant for him in the party which leaves on Wednesday.

Jones, 25, will fly back to the U.K. later this week before joining the rest of the squad in Jamaica. England is due to arrive in the Caribbean on Wednesday.

"It was hard going last summer and there were times when I thought I would never see the day when I got back into the England side," said Jones.

David Graveney, chairman of selectors, said: "Simon is now fully recovered from injury and Rod Marsh has been pleased with his progress on the `A' squad's tour of India. He has worked hard on building up his fitness over the winter and I'm sure that his wicket-taking capabilities will be a real asset to Duncan Fletcher and Michael Vaughan in the Caribbean."

Jones made his Test debut against India at Lord's in 2002 and was selected for England's Ashes tour of Australia in 2002-03. He tore his knee ligaments while making a sliding stop in the field during the first Test against Australia in Brisbane.

After undergoing surgery, Jones was ruled out of the remainder of the tour and missed the bulk of the last domestic season in England. After appearing for the Glamorgan Second XI at the end of last summer, he was selected for National Academy squad this winter and has been the outstanding bowler of the tour to date.

His claims have been strengthened by the close watch kept on him by Marsh, who is both a selector and manager of the team playing in India, but it comes at a time when the ECB has sent the young Yorkshire fast bowler Steve Kirby to Dennis Lillee's school of coaching in Chennai where, I hear, he has expressed surprise to Marsh that Kirby is not a member of the tour party.

I suspect that both of them would improve with a touch of the Lillee magic, but as the old Australian fast bowler and Marsh still keep almost as closely in touch as they did in the days when Marsh took catches off Lillee's bowling, we may not be far off the days when Jones at one end and Kirby at the other are the main strike bowlers for England.

In the meantime, Jones, the England management and the England selectors will all watch his progress with bated breath. It was only 12 years ago that Sid Lawrence, another raw, enthusiastic young England fast bowler, had his career ended by a nasty knee injury and on the hard, unyielding pitches in West Indies, Michael Vaughan, Jones' captain, will need to be cautious about the number of overs he bowls in a day.

He will also be keen to see if Jones junior can emulate his father who returned home to Wales in 1969 a hero after his bowling had made inroads into the West Indies side, although John Snow was their biggest enemy. Jones senior's batting saved what seemed likely to be defeat in the final Test after England had won the fourth and taken the rubber.

The squad: Michael Vaughan (capt.), Marcus Trescothick, Mark Butcher, Graham Thorpe, Paul Collingwood, Nasser Hussain, Andrew Flintoff, Rikki Clarke, Chris Read, Geraint Jones, Ashley Giles, Gareth Batty, James Anderson, Steve Harmison, Matthew Hoggard and Simon Jones.

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