Geraint Jones all set to debut for his country of birth – Cricket News Update
The wicketkeeper batsman of England, Geraint Jones is set to debut for his country of birth, Papua New Guinea (PNG) in the World T20 championship qualifiers, underway in the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/United-Arab-Emirates-c3033.
The 35-year-old wicketkeeper batsman has not played international cricket since 2006. His last international appearance had come in December 2006, when he played for England in the 2006-07 Ashes series in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746.
Speaking to media reporters ahead of his debut against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Afghanistan-c745, the right-handed batsman praised his compatriots for doing well so far. He also thanked the PNG cricket management
"It's been in the pipeline for a while. Because my last game for England was more than four years ago it opened the door to play for PNG.,” said http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Jones-c69217.
“The opportunity was there and the guys have done fantastically well to get to this stage. I wanted to make sure they wanted me to be part of it. I didn't want to steamroll in but thankfully they said, yes, they wanted me involved," he added further.
The former England cricketer was excited at getting another chance to resurrect his international career after a gap of four years, and is looking forward to qualifying for this year’s World T20 Championship.
“…it's also a chance to play a bit more international cricket and maybe go to a world cup, and that was one thing I never did with http://www.senore.com/Cricket/England-c56013," said Jones.
Jones' parents were teachers, and they were posted in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Papua-New-Guinea-c41002 in 1973 by an Australian organization before his birth. He has played for England in 34 Tests and 49 One Day Internationals, taking 128 and 68 catches behind the stumps in each format
respectively.
To date, he has played 159 first class matches, taking 488 catches besides completing 35 stumpings. In 78 Twenty20 matches, he has scored 760 runs and has claimed 41 catches and 16 stumpings.
In the qualifying rounds, a total of 16 associate teams compete for the two positions that are given to associate members for the World T20 Championship. This year the tournament takes place in September and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 will be hosting the prestigious event.
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