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- Source: Mel Jones
Melanie Jones (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.
Early life
Jones was born in England and moved with her mother to Melbourne, Australia when she was three months old. Her father, a Trinidadian, 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. 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.
Playing career
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. Jones was the 134th woman to play Test cricket for Australia. 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.
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. 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.
Commentary career
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.
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.
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. 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, 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 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.
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.
Commentary extended to radio stints with BBC, SEN and ABC and her own WBBL vodcast with comedian Bobby Macumber called Pitch Perfect.
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.
Personal life
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.
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.
Jones is an ambassador with Australian charity, Red Dust, which promotes health initiatives in remote Aboriginal communities and is a Victoria University Women in Sport Ambassador. In 2017 Jones was inducted to the Victorian Honour Roll of Women, while in the 2019 Australia Day Honours, Jones was awarded the Order of Australia Medal, for services to cricket and the community.
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..
References
External links
Mel Jones at CricketArchive (subscription required)
Mel Jones at ESPNcricinfo
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