Moves To Worcestershire and Hampshire
As his contract with Glamorgan was due to expire at the end of the 2007 season, Jones was linked with a move away from Glamorgan. After speculation linking him to Hampshire, on 19 October Jones moved to Division Two side Worcestershire, on a two-year contract. Yet another injury (this time to the neck) confined Jones to just three overs in the first game of the 2008 season. He returned to action for Worcestershire in a one-day game against Hampshire on 11 May 2008, recording career best figures of 5 for 32 from 10 overs and bowling well over 90 mph. This led to speculation that he may yet return to the England team once more.
Shortly after the surprise international call-up for Darren Pattinson, chosen ahead of Jones, Jones suffered another knee injury requiring yet more surgery.
"The surgeon was happy," Jones said. "He said, 'You can never be 100% I'm 80 to 90% sure you'll be fine - you are always going to have 10 or 20% '." Jones, though, is happy with those odds. He has beaten worse predictions before after being given a 70% chance of recovering from his horrific cruciate ligament injury at Brisbane in 2002. "I'll always back myself," he said. "I know if I can bowl at the top of my game I can get in that side."
With no hope of playing cricket in the remaining 2009 season, and with it being the final year of his contract, on July 19 Worcestershire released Jones. Towards the end of the 2009 domestic season, Jones opened talks with Glamorgan and Hampshire County Cricket Club.
Jones eventually opted to sign for Hampshire and joined the club on 30 September 2009 with a view to regaining his fitness in time for the 2010 County Championship. Jones played a number of limited-over matches for Hampshire that season and eventually made his first-class debut at the end of the season, in a match versus Warwickshire, taking 4-60 in the only innings in which he bowled.
In January 2011, Jones played for Hampshire in the 2011 Caribbean Twenty20, a tournament which Hampshire were invited to take part in. He played all of Hampshire's fixtures in the tournament, including the final against Trinidad and Tobago, which Hampshire lost. Jones was the competition's joint leading wicket taker with teammate Hamza Riazuddin with 12.
Read more about this topic: Simon Jones (cricketer)
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