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Mel Jones

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Melanie Jones OAM (born 11 August 1972, Barnstaple, Devon, England) is an English-born Australian cricket commentator and former cricketer who represented the Australia women's national cricket team.

Mel Jones

OAM
Cricket commentator Mel Jones on Sky Sports
Personal information
Full name
Melanie Jones
Born (1972-08-11) 11 August 1972 (age 52)
Barnstaple, Devon
BattingRight-handed
BowlingRight-arm medium
International information
National side
Test debut (cap 134)6 August 1998 v England
Last Test22 February 2003 v England
ODI debut (cap 82)7 February 1997 v Pakistan
Last ODI10 April 2005 v India
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
1996/97 - 2008/09Victorian Spirit
Career statistics
Competition Test ODI LA WNCL
Matches 5 61 208 122
Runs scored 251 1028 4893 3,338[1]
Batting average 35.85 21.41 28.44 30.35
100s/50s 1/1 0/4 1/29 0/21
Top score 131 58 124 95
Balls bowled 6 13 216 162
Wickets 0 0 2 2
Bowling average – – 90.00 64.00
5 wickets in innings – – 0 0
10 wickets in match – – 0 0
Best bowling – – 1/3 1/3
Catches/stumpings 3/– 15/– 73/– 45/–
Source: CricInfo, 20 June 2014

Early life

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Jones was born in England and moved with her mother to Melbourne, Australia when she was three months old. Her father, a Trinidadian,[2] stayed back in England. Although not meeting her father till the age of 16, he played a significant role in attracting her to cricket through his connection to the West Indian players of the 1970s and 1980s.[3][4] Her Elwood Secondary College school development in Melbourne was nurtured by her geography teacher John Handscomb, the father of Australian Test player Peter Handscomb Peter Handscomb.[5]

Playing career

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Starting her career as an opening bowler for Victoria and Australia U/21s, Jones then developed into a top order bat for the majority of her career. She played 5 Test matches for Australia between 1998 and 2003, scoring 251 runs, highlighted by a 131 on debut against England in August 1998.[6] Jones was the 134th woman to play Test cricket for Australia.[7] She also played 61 One Day International for Australia, scoring 1028 runs winning two World Cups in 1997 and 2005 and two successful women's Ashes campaigns in 1998 and 2002/3.[8]

While working in the development of women and girls' cricket for Surrey County Cricket Board Jones played for the Surrey County women's cricket team and coached their junior teams between 2003 and 2004.[9] She played 122 games for the Victorian Spirit in the Australian Women's National Cricket League, and then five Women's Twenty20 cricket games for the Tasmanian Roar.[10]

Commentary career

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Missing an Australian Ashes tour to England in 2001, Jones was asked by Sky Sport to commentate on a ODI between the two teams. Subsequent work trips to England meant one off commentary stints with this leading to opportunities in Australia in 2007 with Channel 9 to cover the women's Twenty 20 internationals.[11]

Jones was then part of the ICC's first ever coverage of women's world cups in 2009 when she joined Alan Wilkins, Belinda Clark, Debbie Hockley, Danny Morrison and Wasim Akram.[12]

2015 saw Jones, along with Isa Guha, Lisa Sthalekar and Anjum Chopra, join the Indian Premier League as the first women to commentate on the largest domestic cricket competition and top ten world sporting competitions.[13] This led to joining Channel 10 in the inaugural season of the Women's Big Bash League, and also provided boundary commentary during the 2015-16 Big Bash League,[14] along with commentary in the Pakistan Super League in 2017.

With a change to media rights in Australia in 2018 Jones departed her full time employment as a sports agent[15] and joined the Fox Sports Cricket commentary team which included the first ever production of a women's cricket magazine show, The Blast, with co-host Megan Barnard.[16]

Jones has maintained her connection with Sky Sport Cricket and is a constant part of the England cricket summer across men's and women's Internationals and The Hundred.[11]

Commentary extended to radio stints with BBC, SEN and ABC and her own WBBL vodcast with comedian Bobby Macumber called Pitch Perfect.[17]

Now a regular on ICC men's and women's world cups and T20 world cups, Jones voice is synonymous with cricket commentary and world cup cricket moments as well as lending her voice for cricket games like the Ashes Cricket 17 game and various podcasts.[12]

Personal life

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Jones completed a Bachelor of Applied Science in Human Movement and a Graduate Diploma of Secondary Education teaching at Victoria University. After a short time as a Physical Education teacher she moved into cricket development and coaching for women and girls across Australia, UK, and South Africa.[18]

A career as a sports agent with TGI for some of Australia's leading female athletes was left upon taking up full time commentary in 2018.[15]

Jones is an ambassador with Australian charity, Red Dust, which promotes health initiatives in remote Aboriginal communities[4][19] and is a Victoria University Women in Sport Ambassador. In 2017 Jones was inducted to the Victorian Honour Roll of Women,[20] while in the 2019 Australia Day Honours, Jones was awarded the Order of Australia Medal, for services to cricket and the community.[21]

Cricket Victoria became the first Australian state to successfully nominate a woman to the board of Cricket Australia where Jones spent a term working through some of Australian cricket's biggest challenges including hosting T20 World Cups, responding to the covid pandemic and co-chairing the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Cricket Advisory Committee..[22]

References

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  1. ^ "Women's National Cricket League Records 1996/7 to present" (PDF). Southern Stars. 18 January 2012. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 March 2015. Retrieved 17 August 2017.
  2. ^ Cooke, Richard (3 February 2018). "Voice of wisdom: Mel Jones, 45, cricket commentator". The Saturday Paper.
  3. ^ Naidu, Kritika (30 April 2015). "Breaking glass ceilings, the Melanie Jones way". Wisden India. Archived from the original on 30 July 2018. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
  4. ^ a b Kritika Naidu (30 April 2015). "Breaking glass ceilings, the Melanie Jones way". Wisden India. Archived from the original on 30 July 2018. Retrieved 2 January 2016.
  5. ^ "Mel Jones - Former Australian Test Cricketer - Elwood College". Elwood College. Retrieved 18 November 2024.
  6. ^ "England Women v Australia Women". CricketArchive. Retrieved 3 November 2009.
  7. ^ "Mel Jones (Player #152)". southernstars.org.au. Cricket Australia. Archived from the original on 1 March 2014. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
  8. ^ "Player Profile: Mel Jones". Cricinfo. Retrieved 3 November 2009.
  9. ^ "CricketArchive - Teams Melanie Jones Played for". CricketArchive. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
  10. ^ "Melanie Jones - CricketArchive". CricketArchive. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
  11. ^ a b "Mel Jones: 'If you're after a quiet day, you're probably in the wrong job'". Cricinfo. Retrieved 18 November 2024.
  12. ^ a b "Mel Jones". ICDB. Retrieved 18 November 2024.
  13. ^ Kesha West (8 April 2015). "Sthalekar, Jones to break new ground". cricket.com.au. Retrieved 2 January 2016.
  14. ^ "WBBL derby promoted to main channel". cricket.com.au. 23 December 2015. Retrieved 2 January 2016.
  15. ^ a b "Mel Jones". Minerva Network. Retrieved 18 November 2024.
  16. ^ "The Blast". Kayo Sports. Retrieved 18 November 2024.
  17. ^ "Pitch Perfect". YouTube. Retrieved 18 November 2024.
  18. ^ "Mel Jones". Victorian Government. October 2019. Retrieved 18 November 2024.
  19. ^ "People". Red Dust. Retrieved 17 August 2017.
  20. ^ "Mel Jones". Victorian Government. October 2019. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
  21. ^ "Ms Melanie Jones". It's an Honour. 26 January 2019. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
  22. ^ "Jones steps down from Cricket Australia board role". Cricket Australia. Retrieved 18 November 2024.
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