Dean Jones: Charismatic cricketer who drove Australia into a new era

The World Cup-winning batter played an integral role in his national side’s ascendance to the top

Looking out of the pavilion window at the Racecourse ground in Durham (Getty)

Few cricketers in recent years have quite captured the public imagination in the manner of Dean Jones. Known to his teammates as “Legend” – a self-endowed nickname, as a World Cup winner who also contributed to two successful Ashes triumphs – this proud Victorian helped revitalise Australian cricket.

Powerfully built and an attacking right-handed middle-order batsman, Jones was a devastating hitter of fast bowling. Anything short was unmercifully hooked. He was an equally good player of spin, quick on his feet, but it was his running between the wickets that helped make him such an outstanding one-day player.

Jones, who has died aged 59, didn’t always do himself justice at Test level, often struggling to rein in his natural attacking instincts. In 1992, he played for Durham and he came close to winning the County Championship as captain of Derbyshire four years later.

Spending his formative years in the Melbourne suburb of Coburg, Dean Mervyn Jones was educated at Mount Waverley High School. His prodigious sporting talent was carefully nurtured at Carlton Cricket Club, initially by his father, Barney, a veteran of the game. While Jones played first grade cricket for the club, fellow member Keith Stackpole (a former opening batsman for Australia) then became his mentor. Making an instant impression, his Sheffield Shield debut for Victoria came in the drawn encounter with Western Australia in Perth in January 1982. Twelve months later, again against Western Australia, he was dramatically run out when on 199.

Jones made his Test debut for Australia against a fearsome West Indies pace attack, scoring 48, in March 1984 at Queen’s Park Oval, Port of Spain. After a further appearance on the tour, he was then left in the wilderness for a few seasons, but came back with a vengeance in 1986. While batting at number three, in only his third Test innings, amid a stifling grey concrete sun trap in Madras, now Chennai, he occupied the crease for 8 hours and 22 minutes before being dismissed for a remarkable 210.

Remembering little of his second 100, he was then whisked off to hospital as Australia compiled 547 for 7 in what ended as a famous tied Test match. A year later, back in India, Jones was an integral member of the Australian team that held aloft the World Cup for the first time.

However Jones endured a difficult slump when he returned to the subcontinent in 1988. On the Test tour of Pakistan, he struggled badly against the spinners. When leading the Victoria side at that time, Jones sought to be relieved of the captaincy as he thought it had adversely affected his form, a move he later regretted.

His poor form continued throughout the Australian season that followed. His first score of any significance came in the fifth Test at Adelaide when he made a peerless 216 against the visiting West Indies. He had only been recalled into the Australian side because some players were involved in the World Series Cup taking place at the same time. Retained for the last three Tests, that double hundred won him a cherished place to tour England.

Over the next six seasons, Jones was a mainstay of the Australian team, becoming one of the stars of the triumphant 1989 Ashes tour of England. In the first Test at Headingley, he displayed a new found maturity, hitting a patient 79 selflessly supported by both Mark Taylor and then Steve Waugh. Cutting free at Edgbaston, he dominated the England attack and made 157. After scoring just 22 at Trent Bridge, he hit a technically superb 122 at the Oval.

Before the tour, Jones set himself a target of scoring five first-class hundreds. Having achieved two in the Tests, he also delivered a stunning 248 against Warwickshire, the highest first class score of that season, 167 against Gloucestershire and a disciplined 128 against Kent.

After impressing the locals when scoring 144 for Victoria against Durham at the University Racecourse Ground in 1991, he represented Durham the following year when they began life as a first-class county. Despite taking time to acclimatise, Jones went on to top both the county’s Sunday League and first-class batting averages.

Four years later, together with fellow Victorian and friend Les Stillman as coach, Jones captained Derbyshire. His leadership was impressive as the county moved up from 14th place to end the campaign as runners-up. But the following year, a dressing room revolt in tandem with a fallout with the club’s committee, saw him return home in June, the county dropping to 16th place.

Playing for Durham against Hampshire in 1992 (Rex)

Though touring South Africa with Australia in 1994, Jones had made the last of his 52 Test match appearances against Sri Lanka in 1992. His 3,631 runs include 11 centuries. A dominant force in one-day cricket, he played the format 164 times for Australia between 1984 and 1994. With seven centuries among his total of 6,068 runs, his occasional off spin claimed three wickets.

Following his retirement as a player in 1998, Jones stayed in the game as a coach, commentator and a writer for both The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. As a coach he led Islamabad United to two Pakistan Super League titles in 2016 and 2018. Having worked for the Afghanistan Cricket Board, he later succeeded Mickey Arthur at Karachi Kings. Remaining revered on the Indian subcontinent, he has often been part of the commentary team covering the Indian Premier League.

But he caused controversy while commentating in 2006 – after calling South Africa’s Hashim Amla a terrorist, Jones was sacked by broadcaster 10 Sport. Earlier that year, he had featured in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List, becoming a Member of the Order of Australia for his services to cricket and fundraising activities for cancer charities.

He is survived by his wife Jane, and daughters Phoebe and Isabella.

Dean Jones, cricketer, born 24 March 1961, died 24 September 2020