Simon Jones

As a fellow Welshman, I feel that SJ's role in helping England win the 2005 is criminally overlooked. The man took the most wickets for England in that series (bar Fred) and that is without playing in The Oval Test, or bowling in the second innings at Trent Bridge. He had quality spells at Old Trafford and Trent Bridge and turned those matches in England's favour. One of my favourite pieces of commentary from that summer was by Boycs after Michael Clarke played and missed at a Jones jaffa and Geoffrey comes out with "What a ball, and it were wasted on thee son". Classic.

His control of reverse swing was masterful, and he is forgotten about because of Freddie's contributions. They were pretty good too though. But Simon was a class apart in that department, he could move it both ways late, but early in the innings. He is without doubt one of my favourite bowlers ever to watch. And this is before we get to his most influential contribution to that series... His partnership with Fred, second innings at Edgbaston!

Watched him bowl the other day coming of 4 paces for Hampshire and still bowling 93mph, what talent this fella had! Such a shame his career has been devastated by injuries ever since the Gabba 02/03. He could have had it all. Great bowler. Now everyone bow down and salute the greatness, yet unfulfilled talent of Simon Jones!

I agree he was a vital part of that team and an excellent bowler. But I also don't think his contribution has been criminally overlooked. I think there is widespread recognition of his contribution - not least in the art of reverse swing - and frustration that injuries subsequently have greatly limited his contribution.

If it wasn't for the injuries I think Simon would still be in the squad likely even leading the attack. At times hes underrated, a bowler who can swing it both ways,bowl 90 MPH plus and takes tons of wickets.

Hampshire will be glad he's fit to play as he could play a vital part in there season if fit all the way through.

I'm with the corporal here, I thought there was pretty good recognition of his contribution in that series, certainly in the cricket media, though maybe in the mainstream he was overshadowed by Freddie's accomplishments (which were after all very very good). It's very sad that his career was so blighted by injuries.

I think if you asked hardcore cricket fans they would remember his contribution, but to any casual watchers the first names they would bring up would be the KP's and the Freddie's, probably even Vaughan and Harmison aswell.

Such a shame of all those injuries ruined him. Where do people think he would be now without those injuries? Among the best bowlers in the world, him and Dale Steyn maybe would be the best to pace bowlers in the world. Maybe SJ with the edge with his ability to reverse the ball masterfully.

Where do people think he would be now without those injuries?

Good question, if tricky to answer. For me the three best pace bowlers in the world currently are Steyn, Zaheer Khan and Anderson. I see Jones as being on a par with those three.

AT the time being as said 'a casual watcher' even I couldn't help but admire Jones and still to this day credit him with a lot of the success we achieved in 2005. The guy was a class act and was one of the guys, inculding Freddie and Harmison who inspired me to play cricket.

It's a giant shame injuries have curtailed him so much, this guy was unbelievably talented!

Maybe I was wrong, maybe more people remember Jones's contribution than I thought! He deserves it after what he is benn through, that people still remember his golden summer! Like I said, he is one of my favourite players. He bowls fast but makes it look so easy in his run up, makes it look like anyone could bowl 90ph!

All of the England bowlers had terrific games thats why some may overlook his performance. Alot of people remember that being Freddie and KP's series. When in fact it was a whole team effort every player chipped in which is why the Ashes 05 is rated so highly.

I agree Liam, I think back and can't remember a player who didn't contribute! Even the subs did their bit for pete's sake! It was just a cracking time for English cricket.

its a shame that he got injured he was a world class bowler.

A worthy thread for my first contribution to 606V2

As others have already mentioned, a lot of us do remember how devastating Jones was as an old ball bowler. For me, in the 2005 series he gave the 2nd best demonstration of reverse swing bowling I can recall, only bettered by Wasim Akram at his best. The thing both of them had that most other reverse bowlers don't was the ability to move the ball both ways - even the likes of Gough and Flintoff only ever really mastered the in-swinging (to RHB) yorker, whereas SJ could get movement out as well and had batsmen groping for deliveries without a clue where it was going.

A sadly unfulfilled talent because of injuries - had he been able to retain fitness from 05 to now we'd be looking at a bowler well up the list of England's wicket takers, probably with an average of about 25.

Imagine how good England could have been with Flintoff and Jones leading the attack for the past 7 years

Hi Dummy_half. Welcome to cricket pages. You sum it up well. Excellent thread....

Have to say i disagree with the idea that Jones has not been properly credited for his 2005 exploits. I've lost count of the number of times i've had discussions with proper cricket fans about Jones. This usually occurs when we are about to tour any of the asian countries.

Simon Jones was a big loss unlike his name sake with gloves of steel.

Simon Jones was real calss. injuries may have finished what would have been a wonderful international career, but I am just happy to hear he's doing just fine for his county.

Speaking of Jones why wasn't he playing for Hampshire yesterday?

I think that Jones gets alot of credit for what he did. The very next series in OZ everyone was so disappointed that he wasnt there because Englands bowlers were in disarray with him not being there. That alone, to me anyway, speaks volumes for what he did in 05.

probably injured liam.

cricketfan90 wrote:probably injured liam.

I'm sure I seen him with his Hampshire kit on,likely 12th man.

He was becoming a very good bowler as his last test match showed. If he had played another couple of seasons it might've even been a different story for the tests on the 06/07 tour of Austraila

Pity his test career really was meteoric and no more. Modern medicine can do a lot of things but it couldn't make good his injury susceptible legs. So it turned out poor old Jonesy's legs couldn't handle the demands of test cricket.