ON A FLYER
Torquay bat weighs up dash from Zimbabwe
TORQUAY import Mike Jones could make an 28-hour, 10,686km dash to Geelong to play in Saturday’s GCA2 grand final.
In a stunning development, Tigers president Steve Young revealed Jones was a 50-50 chance to exit Scotland’s World Cup campaign and line up against Bell Park.
The bat who smashed 685 runs in 12 games at Torquay earned a call-up for his national side for the qualification tournament in Harare, Zimbabwe, but has expressed a desire to return to Australia.
With Scotland needing to win its final pool match against West Indies today to qualify for the World Cup in 2019, it is unclear whether he will be released, despite not playing a match.
Asked if Jones was a chance to play against the Dragons, Young said: “That may be the case.
“We’re not 100 per cent sure ourselves at the moment. If we can get him across we definitely will, but there’s a few things to consider and at this stage he’s probably 50-50.
“They (Scotland) need to beat West Indies to qualify, but there’s a fair chance that the side won’t change and he won’t play, so we’ve requested that he come back over.
“At this stage it’s just hopeful, but we can’t really do much. We’ll obviously pay for his flights back and there’s nothing that would stop us from our end, it’s just a matter of if he gets the all clear from Scotland to come over.”
Young said the club had opted not to contact Scotland officials, instead leaving it with Jones to negotiate on the ground in Harare.
“We’ve spoken to him and discussed the option of coming back,” he said.
“He hasn’t played a game and he’s been in the 14-man squad for a few weeks.
“Obviously a lot’s got to happen before then to get him over here. He’s signed with Durham (in County Cricket), and they’re OK with it because they’re only in pre-season mode at the moment, and we’re only talking about him coming over, playing and flying back straight after the match.”
“But Scotland might say, ‘we want him here’, and that’s the end of it. We’ve approached them and we’ll leave it at that.
“If we get him, we get him, if we don’t, we don’t. We won’t push it. It’s a bit much to be asking a country to release a player, so we’ve put it to Mike and we’ll wait for a decision either way.
“I’d say if they’d bombed out straight away we’d definitely have Mike for the grand final, but we want to be respectful for the position he’s in and not jeopardise anything to just play local cricket.
“But at the same time it’s important to us.”
In another twist, Jones could deny friend and fellow English import Tom Jefferson a place in the grand final if he makes the journey to Geelong.
Under GCA rules, clubs can only play one import, meaning Jefferson would be forced to make way for Jones after blasting 69 and snaring 3-9 from 12 overs to lead the Tigers into the decider.
“He pretty much won us the game and got us into the grand final, so that’s another dilemma,” Young said.
“But at the same time, we’re talking about Mike Jones and T.J. and there are big differences in their abilities.
“So there’s a few problems, but we’ll work through it. We want to keep them (Bell Park) guessing, but we’re guessing as well at the moment.
“It will be super last minute when we do know about Mike. It’s not something we’re going to broadcast. If he rocks up, he rocks up. “Plus the weather is a factor if we do get him over here. It doesn’t look great for this weekend, but hopefully that changes.” GRAND FINALS GCA1: North Geelong v East Belmont, Stinton Oval. GCA2: Bell Park v Torquay, Walker Oval. GCA3: Thomson v Modewarre, West Oval. Venues to be confirmed by GCA