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Mel Jones

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For the New Zealand swimmer, see Melanie Jones (swimmer).

Mel Jones

OAM
Jones during the 2009 Women's Cricket World Cup
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

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

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 and she did not meet him until the age of 16. However, he had a big influence on her early life, particularly in attracting her to cricket.[3][4] She was introduced to cricket by her high school geography teacher (the father of Australian Test player Peter Handscomb[citation needed]).

Playing career

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A right-handed batter and occasional right-arm medium pace bowler, 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.[5] Jones was the 134th woman to play Test cricket for Australia.[6] She has also played 61 One Day Internationals for Australia, scoring 1028 runs with an average in the low-twenties.[7]

Jones played limited overs cricket in England for the now defunct Lancashire and Cheshire Women cricket team between 1994 and 1997 and the Surrey County women's cricket team between 2003 and 2004.[8] 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.[9]

Commentary career

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Cricket Australia put Jones' name forward in 2007 to commentate on the women's Twenty20 international, covered by Australia's Channel 9. Since then, Jones has commentated on women's internationals covered by Channel 9, as well as providing commentary for men's and women's games on ABC Radio.[4]

In 2015, Jones was announced as one of four female commentators to commentate on the 2015 Indian Premier League.[10] Later in 2015, Jones joined the Channel 10 coverage of inaugural season of the Women's Big Bash League, and also provided boundary commentary during the 2015-16 Big Bash League,[11] along with boundary commentary for Pakistan Super League 2017. She also lent her voice to the Ashes Cricket 17 game.

In May 2018, she signed with Fox Sports. During the 2020-21 Australian cricket season, she commentated for Channel 7.

Personal life

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Outside of cricket, Jones works for a sports management company.[4]

Jones has worked as an ambassador with Australian charity, Red Dust, which promotes health initiatives in remote Aboriginal communities.[4][12] In 2017 Jones was inducted to the Victorian Honour Roll of Women,[13] while in the 2019 Australia Day Honours, Jones was awarded the Order of Australia Medal, for services to cricket and the community.[14]

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 c d 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. ^ "England Women v Australia Women". CricketArchive. Retrieved 3 November 2009.
  6. ^ "Mel Jones (Player #152)". southernstars.org.au. Cricket Australia. Archived from the original on 1 March 2014. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
  7. ^ "Player Profile: Mel Jones". Cricinfo. Retrieved 3 November 2009.
  8. ^ "CricketArchive - Teams Melanie Jones Played for". CricketArchive. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
  9. ^ "Melanie Jones - CricketArchive". CricketArchive. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
  10. ^ Kesha West (8 April 2015). "Sthalekar, Jones to break new ground". cricket.com.au. Retrieved 2 January 2016.
  11. ^ "WBBL derby promoted to main channel". cricket.com.au. 23 December 2015. Retrieved 2 January 2016.
  12. ^ "People". Red Dust. Retrieved 17 August 2017.
  13. ^ "Mel Jones". Victorian Government. October 2019. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
  14. ^ "Ms Melanie Jones". It's an Honour. 26 January 2019. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
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