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Jones faces showbiz stars in LA Twenty20
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| Simon Jones: Looking forward to working with young bowlers. |
ASHES hostilities are likely to be renewed for Worcestershire new boy Simon Jones who is lining up in a celebrity Twenty20 match alongside Rolling Stones' rocker Mick Jagger and New Zealand actor Russell Crowe in America next week.
The Twenty20 game, the first of Jones' career, is expected to fill the void left by the Aus-tralian Football League (AFL), the governing body for Australian Rules Football, in the up-coming G'Day USA Festival' from January 17-26 in Los Angeles.
An Australia versus England Twenty20 match has been scheduled for the day previously reserved for the Aussie Rules exhibition game.
The Australian XI will be captained by Steve Waugh. Russell Crowe appears certain to play for Australia, while speculation suggests that Mel Gibson could also feature in the twenty-overs-aside slog-fest.'
The England team is expected to be made up of Kevin Pietersen, Jagger, former Worcestershire star Ian Botham and Rod Stewart.
Jones is looking forward to playing his first game of cricket in America, but reassured Worcestershire officials that he won't put his body at risk with less than three months remaining until the start of the new county season in April.
"I'm only going to bowl off a couple of paces so I won't risk injuring myself again," said Jones.
"Pitches around the world are generally getting slower and flatter so it's harder for fast bowlers to take wickets these days. But I'm not going to bowl at full pace against Mel Gibson and Russell Crowe!"
Jones believes the signing of Somerset's former England Under 19 bowler Gareth Andrew will add a new dimension to a Worcestershire attack which consistently failed to bowl teams out twice in the Championship last year.
The Welshman is also backing Kabir Ali to force his way back into the England reckoning after nearly two years of being overlooked by the selectors.
"Another important reason why I signed for Worcestershire is that Steve Rhodes, Worcestershire's director of cricket, talked to me about working with the team's younger bowlers," Jones said.
"I'm looking forward to doing that and it's going to be easier because we've got some very good fast bowlers already at New Road.
"If Gareth Andrews is full fit he's got the ability to take a lot of wickets and Kabir Ali just needs to be a bit more consistent to get back in the England team."
4:40pm Thursday 17th January 2008
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