‘Pioneer’: Aussie great’s ultimate recognition

Dean Jones has been recognised for “catapulting cricket into the modern era”, with Australia’s domestic one-day competition renamed in his honour.

The six state teams will compete for the Dean Jones Trophy after more than 10,000 fans voted and the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame committee declared the batting great should be commemorated.

A medal for the player of the final in the 50-over competition was also created and named after fellow one-day legend Michael Bevan.

Jones, Bevan and late Queensland all-rounder Andrew Symonds were the final three names short-listed for the trophy following the fan vote conducted across Cricket Australia’s digital platforms.

Jones, who died aged 59 in 2020 due to a catastrophic stroke, would have been “over the moon” with the honour according to his daughter, Augusta, who unveiled the trophy at the MCG on Friday along with her sister Phoebe and Jones’s wife, Jane.

“He absolutely loved the limelight, he loved his fans, but more than anything he loved cricket – that was his heart and soul,” Augusta said.

“I can hear his voice in my head … he would be very stoked by this. His head would be even bigger.”

Jane recalled being by the side of the Australian great as he played 52 Tests and 164 ODI games, culminating in his famous double century in sweltering heat in Madras (now Chennai) in 1986.

“Of course (it’s still difficult), but we’re at the stage now where we love talking about him and love having some sort of acknowledgment that we can be part of,” she said.

Cricket Victoria chief executive Nick Cummins, who was a childhood fan of Jones, said the right-hander was responsible for many cricketing innovations that modern fans took for granted.

“He changed the game, and those who saw him play (saw) the way he transformed one-day cricket from being a shorter version of Test cricket to playing a game we just take for granted now,” Cummins said.

“Particularly the running between wickets, and his attacking style, but also things like wearing sunglasses on the field, which at the time was outrageous and upset conservative cricket fans like my dad, but we all thought it was fantastic.

“But that was what Deano did … he catapulted cricket into the modern era, and many of the things that we just take for granted as being normal in cricket were abnormal when he introduced them.

“So it’s a real pleasure to be able to see him recognised for the impact that he had not just on the international game but also on the domestic game as well.”

Jones had a tumultuous relationship with Cricket Victoria and before his death handed back his life membership and asked for his name to be taken off the award given to Victoria’s best player in the one-day format.

Both honours were reinstated after his death, and Cummins said any disagreements with the state’s governing body had come from a place of “love and passion”.

“(Jones’s) legacy has such a big role to play in terms of not just engaging current players but also future players,” Cummins said.

“We feel that, although sometimes the relationship was fractious, it was fractious because he wanted the best for Victorian cricket.

“We recognise that where he was coming from was a place of love and passion, and we’re proud to have him continue to be involved and commemorated through the various awards that we have in Victoria.”