In an exclusive interview with Pakpassion.Net, Dean Jones speaks candidly about his own career, his current coaching role with South Australia as well as providing his thoughts on Sachin Tendulkar, Usman Qadir, Umar Akmal, Usman Khawaja, the legality of the Doosra and much more.

By Nasser Khan, Saaib Uppal & Arsheel Khan (9th November 2012)

PakPassion presents an exclusive interview with former Australian batsman Dean Jones.

Jones began his first class career in the 1981–82 season with Victoria in the Sheffield Shield. He was selected on the 1984 tour of the West Indies after Graham Yallop had to pull out due to injury.

Between 1984 and 1992, Jones played 52 Test matches for Australia, scoring 3,631 runs, including 11 centuries, at an average of 46.55. His most notable innings was in only his third Test, against India in the Tied Test in Chennai (Madras) in 1986. Suffering from dehydration in the oppressively hot and humid conditions, Jones was frequently vomiting on the pitch.

Jones went on to be a mainstay of the Australian Test team middle order over the next six years and being one of the stars of the successful 1989 Ashes tour of England.

Jones was one of Australia's most successful batsmen in One Day International matches. In 164 matches he scored 6,068 runs, including seven centuries and 46 half centuries, at an average of 44.61.

Jones played in the 1987 World Cup winning team, and was noted for his electric running between the wickets, outstanding out-fielding and aggressive batting especially against fast bowlers. With his positive, aggressive and flamboyant style of play he became a crowd favourite.

Jones has recently worked as the technical director of Chittagong Kings at the inaugural Bangladesh Premier League and is currently the batting coach for South Australia. In this interview Jones speaks candidly about his own career, his current coaching role with South Australia, as well as providing his thoughts on Sachin Tendulkar, Usman Qadir, Umar Akmal, Usman Khawaja, the legality of the Doosra and much more. 

PakPassion.net: Who was the best bowler you faced during your career and was there a particular spell that you recall from that bowler that stood out?

Dean Jones: It was Joel Garner in my first Test match in the first spell I faced against him. I made 48. They [West Indies] had Marshall and Holding playing on a green pitch in Trinidad. Garner was a little bit upset because he didn’t go to India on a previous tour and the other West Indian bowlers were getting into Joel a bit and Jeffrey Dujon was a long way back. That 48 was the best innings I played in my life. 

I was down sick before the first Test of the series, and it was my first Test - I should never have played. Steve Smith, the opener at the time, was sick and the pitch was green as hell. Ultimately I was batting with Allan Border who made 98 and 120 not out on a very average pitch against a ferocious attack. 

Wearing the baggy green cap for the first time, I was very nervous and was gripping the bat so tightly that the glue was coming out of the handle. It was ridiculous!


PakPassion.net: On a lighter note, what’s the funniest piece of sledging you’ve either dished out or been on the receiving end of? 

Dean Jones: Jamie Siddons in a one-day game against Pakistan in Lahore. He was always up there and I played with Jamie at Victoria. He never played a Test match and Steve Waugh came to the crease, captain of Australia and Steve was fiddling around a bit and taking forever to get ready for his first ball. Jamie Siddons said to him “is there any chance mate you can hurry up and bat? Because this isn’t a Test match!” to which Steve Waugh replied “oh that’s right, because you’re here.” 


PakPassion.net: Tell us about that 1987 World Cup Semi Final in Lahore. Tell us about the occasion itself, what you recall about that match and the crowd reaction after Pakistan lost? 

Dean Jones: The crowd was silent at the end. It was amazing. We batted first and the match was sort of going their way. I remember I couldn’t pick the wrong ‘un from Abdul Qadir and one flicked the pad, hitting Saleem Yousuf in the face. Saleem lost seven teeth, sadly for him. Then we started to get on top and I was batting with David Boon when Tauseef Ahmed was bowling. I told Boon to just get singles but he went down the pitch and tried to hit it for six but he hit it too flat. It went straight back to the bowler but little Tauseef just couldn’t catch this thunderbolt and it almost ripped his thumb almost off his hand - it was completely busted. I remember saying to Boonie “What are you doing?” and he said “Two down, nine to go!”

It was an interesting time. We didn’t play that well with the bat and were always worried about the power in the middle order, with Imran and Wasim etc until Steve Waugh took 18 off the last over by Salim Jaffar, which got us to 250.

Now it was Pakistan who were in a situation where they were a player down. We were hunting them, and they lost a wicket early, that of Mansoor Akhtar as he tried to take on Allan Border at midwicket - they’ll never learn! Border picked it up and threw the stumps down. Silly stuff from the batsmen and things came along pretty well. The injury to Yousuf and Tauseef hurt Pakistan badly - it was a massive thing for them and Pakistan were playing catch-up from there. We bowled pretty well, we fielded very well as was the norm. 

Semi-finals tend to be harder to win than finals. I remember this vividly because the silence from the crowd was deafening when we walked off the ground and our manager at the time, Alan Crompton, said “boys, we’re just slightly worried there might be some repercussions with our win. Can everyone get themselves ready to go now right after the game” and we hopped straight on the plane and flew straight to Kolkata. We found that those concerns were completely wrong because everyone we met at the airport and everywhere walking around the ground were happy for us, because we were the underdogs. We were the worst team ranked to win that World Cup. Sri Lanka and everyone else had better rankings than us. 


PakPassion.net: You are currently working as the batting coach at South Australia, tell us how that is going?

Dean Jones: I’m enjoying it. I wanted to get into coaching. I’ve coached Chittagong Kings and when I left them to work in India they had five wins from six games and they didn’t win another game after that. I’m planning to try and coach in the Bangladesh Premier League and Sri Lankan Premier League but I’m enjoying it with South Australia, working with some of the guys. 

Phillip Hughes is one, Callum Ferguson amongst others, to help them come through so a lot of the Victorian boys as I said the other day a lot of the Pakistani boys whenever I go on the road they ask always me for a little tip here and there, as I did when I played, asking Geoff Boycott and all these people about the little things in the game. That’s basically it, It's going well and we’ll be working out the contract after this year but I’m enjoying my role as a batting coach at South Australia.


PakPassion.net: Australia are due to face the number-one ranked side South Africa in a Test series. How do you see that three-match Test series going? 

Dean Jones: If Australia win this series they go to number one. It’ll be a ripper of a series. Our bowling is coming along leaps and bounds – the batting still has concerns. Watson’s gone, he’s out and there are a couple of queries on other players as well. Ricky Ponting has got hamstring soreness and that’s a concern against their quicks because their quicks are pretty good but let me tell you the South African top six is probably the best ever batting line-up to have graced our shores, toured our shores. I think they’ve made over 35,000 test runs with 107 test centuries their top six so we need to bowl well and field well to be able to knock them over. 

I’m hoping it might be one-all, with the chance of winning in Adelaide but I’ve got a feeling they could hurt us badly if we don’t get our bowling plans right. 


PakPassion.net: On the bowling – there appears to the rejuvenation of fast bowling in Australia with Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and James Pattinson. Cummins is injured at the moment, but three good pace bowlers coming through? 

Dean Jones:We’re starting to get guys who bowl over 145kph and the interesting thing, the most common mistake a batsman makes is he misreads length. Any batsman who averages over 45 in Test cricket normally (and I am generalizing here) gets it right, picks length 90% of the time. What I mean by pick length is that they go forward to a ball that is pitched up or they go back to a ball that’s short. When a bowler is bowling at over 145kph and as a batsman you do not pick the length right, then you either miss it and you’re out, or be killed. So that’s why you need to have fast bowlers. 

To have three bowlers who bowl at over 145kph you will rule the world. Now we are starting to get it. England had it for a while, and South Africa have at least three guys who bowl at over 145kph. You need to have guys who bowl at over 145kph or you will not be any good. That’s what I said about India and that’s what I said about Sri Lanka. Pakistan always have at least two guys who get pretty close to 145 but you need to have three if you’re going to have any dominance in the world.


PakPassion.net: The Australian batting line-up seems to be and ageing unit - a lot of guys over age 30. Is that a bit of a concern?

Dean Jones: Yes, it is. That's a concern even for Kallis who is coming out here to play. When nearing 36-37 years of age, trust me - history tells me that guys don't like the ball around their throat. Ricky Ponting hasn't been that great with ball being short, although he is in pretty good form off late. Michael Hussey is 37. We're giving a debut to a guy called Rob Quiney, who is going to be 30. 

30 to 35 is no problem there - I think they are probably in their peak. But once you get over 35, it's a bit of a concern. Even Bradman didn't like it at 40 we heard. In the next 12 months, they are going to whittle one of the big boys away whether it’s Ponting or Hussey. This great game forces the hand pretty quickly. A couple of bad series at the age of 37, trust me your future is no longer there, and the young kids, they don't care whether you have 12,000-15,000 Test runs or you've got one run, these young kids of today whether they are from Pakistan or India, well not so much India, rather Australia, they'll rip your throat out if they get an opportunity. I just don't think we can continue into the Ashes series with Hussey and Ponting.


PakPassion.net: One young batsmen, who Pakistanis are very interested in is Pakistan-born Usman Khawaja. He’s played a few games for Australia but hasn't quite cut it at the international level. Any advice for Usman? What do you think of him as a batsman?

Dean Jones: He's a quality player, got heaps of time. He's got a lot of shots, needs to work on his defence a little bit more. Blood boils in him in a little bit, the beans start to get going, but all in all I think he's a quality player. He'll get his time in the next 12 months, I've got no problem with that.


PakPassion.net: John Inverarity made some comments regarding the doosra. He wasn't saying it was an illegal delivery but was hinting at the fact that Australian spinners won't opt for that delivery. What are your thoughts on the doosra? Do you think its a legal delivery? Can bowlers bowl it in a legal fashion?

Dean Jones: Well it's very well put, very educated response to a question by John. He's a well educated man. If a bowler can bowl the doosra with less than 15 degrees angle of his elbow, he can bowl it. All the great spinners that ever lived - you look at Warne, you look at Murali, you look at Bhajji, he's got over 400 test wickets, Kumble - they all spun the ball both ways. Now, if you want to be a top Test bowler, Ajmal is now very good at it, and as was Abdul Qadir. Interesting thing is that no left arm spinner bowled the doosra. I don't know why that doesn't happen. You don't see left-arm orthodox spinners bowl the doosra. If it's less than 15 degrees, I've got no problem, it's within the laws of game, so I don't know where he's coming from.