Geraint Owen Jones (born 14 July 1976) is a former cricketer who played for both

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

and

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

. Born to Welsh parents in

, Jones was the first-choice wicketkeeper for the England cricket team between 2004 and 2006. He later played international cricket for Papua New Guinea from 2012 to 2014. He announced his retirement from first-class cricket in July 2015 following his resignation as the first-class cricket captain of Gloucestershire County Cricket Club.

Personal life

Jones was born in Kundiawa,

, and moved to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

with his parents, who were originally from

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

, soon after he was born. He grew up in

Toowoomba Toowoomba ( ), nicknamed 'The Garden City' and 'T-Bar', is a city on the border of South East Queensland and Darling Downs regions of Queensland, Australia. It is located west of Queensland's capital, Brisbane. The urban population of Toowoom ...

where he played in the under 21 team in the annual Spring Street Church cricket match. He went on to play in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, played for the Queensland Colts (Under-21) team, and was awarded the wicketkeeper's trophy for most dismissals in the Brisbane Grade Cricket competition in 1995/96 when he was 19/20. His first club in England was Lydney CC in the

Forest of Dean The Forest of Dean is a geographical, historical and cultural region in the western part of the Counties of England, county of Gloucestershire, England. It forms a roughly triangle, triangular plateau bounded by the River Wye to the west and no ...

but he returned to live in Australia until he was 22. Upon his return to Britain he played for Clevedon CC. The following season he joined Abergavenny CC and was later appointed captain. Whilst at Abergavenny he trained as a pharmacist. He met his wife whilst playing for Clevedon; the couple has two sons. After retiring, Jones joined Brentwood School as their cricket professional in November 2015. He also worked as a business studies teacher. In 2019 he trained to become a retained firefighter with Kent Fire and Rescue Service.

Career

Domestic career

Jones spent most of his career playing for

Kent County Cricket Club Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Kent. A club representing the county was first founded in 1842 but Ken ...

. He made his debut for Kent in 2001 after having played Second XI cricket for the side the previous season. He was capped by the side in 2003 and played in more than 380 top-class matches for Kent, making his final appearance for the side in 2013.Geraint Jones
CricketArchive. Retrieved 23 August 2020. After losing his place in the Kent side to Sam Billings at the start of the 2014 season, Jones joined

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

on loan. He was released by Kent at the end of the season, and signed a two-year deal with Gloucestershire in October 2014, but retired after only a year with the club.

England career

Jones replaced Chris Read as England wicket-keeper during the 2004 tour of the West Indies. Later that year, playing against

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

, he scored his only Test match century. He toured South Africa in 2004/05 In 2005 he took the final catch of the 2005 Ashes Test at Edgbaston, ensuring an England victory by two runs. In the 2006 New Year Honours, Jones was awarded the MBE for playing in the successful Ashes series. A succession of dropped catches and missed stumpings during his England career had caused many commentators to question whether his value to the team as a batsman was sufficient for him to hold his place against competition from more accomplished wicket-keepers such as Read and James Foster. Until mid-2006, the England selectors maintained faith in Jones believing that he offset his mistakes with several well-timed performances with the bat. His batting form tailed off and, after suffering a broken finger, he was replaced by Chris Read for the third Test against Pakistan in 2006. Jones was not awarded a 12-month central contract for 2007, although neither was Read and both players were selected for the 2006-07 Ashes series. Jones played the first three matches of the series but was dropped after poor performances and never regained his England place.

Papua New Guinea career

Jones played for

in the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifiers in the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

. His best score was 46 off 33 balls in PNG's victory over

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

. Papua New Guinea finished eighth out of 16. He played again for PNG in the 2013 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier, where he was a standout in the middle order for the side and provided much needed stability to the lineup, scoring 216 runs, with an average of 27 and a high score of 55. In early January 2014 he played in the 2014 WCQ held in NZ, top-scoring with 88 runs against Hong Kong, his highest score for PNG. PNG finished fourth in the tournament and were awarded

One Day International One Day International (ODI) is a format of cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of fifty overs, with the game lasting up to 7 hours. The World Cup, generally held every four yea ...

and T20 International status by the

International Cricket Council The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the global Sports governing body, governing body of cricket. It was founded as the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1909 by representatives from Australia, England, and South Africa. In 1965, the body wa ...

. Jones played in two ODI's for the side, both against

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

in Townsville, Australia.

Career best performances

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Geraint 1976 births Living people Dual international cricketers Gloucestershire cricket captains England One Day International cricketers England Test cricketers England Twenty20 International cricketers Papua New Guinea One Day International cricketers Gloucestershire cricketers Kent cricketers Papua New Guinean cricketers Welsh cricketers Members of the Order of the British Empire Papua New Guinean people of Welsh descent Welsh emigrants to Australia Wicket-keepers