INTERVIEW: Michael Jones on making the move back to Lancashire
Michael Jones certainly didn’t need much convincing when Lancashire came calling for his signature midway through the most recent summer.
The versatile Scotland international batter has signed from Durham on a three-year contract in early August and has now started training with his team-mates at Emirates Old Trafford ahead of the 2025 county season.
Jones may belt out Flower of Scotland when he plays international cricket, but he does so with a faint Liverpudlian accent, indication a Red Rose roots.
The 26-year-old is Ormskirk born and bred and came through the Lancashire age-groups before heading for pastures new.
“All my junior cricket was here at Lancs, and it’s nice to be back. It’s gone full circle,” he smiled.
“Being from Lancs, I was in the junior set-up until Under 17s or 19s maybe. I then started playing more cricket for Scotland, and that’s how I ended up at Durham I suppose - through trialling and playing against them for Scotland.
“I was a very ambitious person and still am now. When you’re a junior, you want to become a professional cricketer as soon as possible. That was always my aim.
“The door opened for me somewhere else, but it’s nice to be back.
“I absolutely loved my time at Durham and am grateful for the opportunities they gave me. I’m also very grateful to Lancs for bringing me back.
“It all goes through my agent, and it’s funny because when my mind became open to a move, I said, ‘The interesting one would be if Lancs show interest in me’.
“And it was almost the next day that I got a call saying, ‘Lancs are interested in you’.
“I was a little bit taken aback, but when all the details were put in front of me and you think about where you want your career to go, it was a no-brainer for me to come back and play my cricket here.”
Jones debuted for both Durham and Scotland in 2018. He has gone on to play 27 limited overs internationals for the latter since, including at the T20 World Cup in the West Indies and USA earlier this summer. He crashed a superb 45 opening the batting in a rained off game against England at Barbados at the start of June.
It was around that time that he became aware of Lancashire’s interest in him.
He continued: “I played the one-day game against Lancs at Sedbergh (late July) after I’d signed, the one where I came in down the order and smacked a few at the end.
“The T20 game here at Emirates Old Trafford, I got a first-baller before I’d signed. Tom Aspinwall was on fire. He came in and bowled me a yorker first ball. It just happens. Cricket’s a funny game.
“I didn’t have it in my head then that I could be a Lancs player. It was only around June time that it kicked off.”
Jones has played 127 senior career matches in his career, a number which is likely to increase before he pulls on a Red Rose shirt in April given he is playing at the ILT20 event in the UAE in January and February and may also be touring Sri Lanka with Scotland just afterwards.
He has just short of 4,000 runs to his name across the formats, including three centuries in the Vitality County Championship and one in List A cricket. One of those first-class tons was a superb 206 opening the batting for Durham against Middlesex in mid-2022.
All of his Championship centuries have come as an opener, whereas his List A ton came whilst batting at five in the One-Day Cup three summers ago.
“I haven’t had the specific conversations yet as to where I will bat,” said Jones, whose mother is an Aberdonian.
“If you have followed my career up until this point, it’s clear that I’ve been an opening batter. That’s what I’ve done for the majority of my career up until the last year or two.
“I definitely wouldn’t be opposed to opening the batting if that’s where the team needs me, or in the middle order. I’m not too precious. I just want to be playing and contributing as much as I can. I will do whatever the team needs.
“That’s the good thing about my signing, that I am flexible in both formats. I’m happy to open or slide down.
“Similar in white ball cricket. I’m someone who is diverse.
“I’ve opened the batting a lot, and last season I found myself batting in the finisher role for Durham.
“If we have the international lads available - Salty, etc - I’m sure they’ll come in and want to open like they do for England. That’s where I may slide down the order. But when they’re away, I’m happy to open the batting.
“I’m pretty happy with where my white ball game’s at, so I think the bulk of my winter here will be getting my red ball game to where I want it to be and then just continuing with my white ball game.”
Jones has just been with Scotland in Dallas for some one-day internationals against the USA and Nepal, but now his full focus is on Lancashire.
“It’s been very good, and I’m enjoying it so far,” he said of the early stages of pre-season training.
“There will be a little bit of cricket stuff in the build-up to Christmas, but the bulk of the work that we’ll do will be fitness related.
“It’s nice to be here.
“I’d signed a contract essentially in the middle of the summer, so the anticipation was building. I was looking forward to getting here to meet the lads, introduce myself and get going with the work.
“I’ve played against these guys numerous times now, so we obviously know of each other. But I haven’t had the chance to build any real relationships. So it’s nice to be settling in and getting those friendships going.”
Asked whether he’s felt like a homecoming, he continued: “Yeah. You say that, but I’m staying with my parents at the moment while I look for some more permanent accommodation. So it’s very much like coming back home.
“It’s definitely got that feel, travelling in from Ormskirk - my home town - being surrounded by friends and family. Everything feels good so far.”
Ormskirk is certainly a hotbed of cricket, with Jones hailing from the West Lancashire town, where Tom Hartley was also born. Josh Bohannon plays his club cricket for the Liverpool Competition side, where Simon Kerrigan played. Others such as Gavin Griffiths and Liam Hurt have come through at that club.
League cricket wise, Ormskirk are an incredibly successful. They have won the last two Liverpool Competition Premier Division titles, for example.
Talking of success, that’s exactly what Jones is confident Lancashire can achieve in the coming summers.
“It’s such a big club that you expect them to be challenging, and I expect that next year - that we’ll really make a good fist of going straight back up,” he said, revealing that he was watching last season’s run-in with intent from afar.
“I was supporting as much as I could, and it was a shame that results didn’t go our way come the back end of the year.
“The depth in the squad is really high-quality, so I expect us to challenge in all the competitions.
“I’ve joined with high hopes and ambitions to go and win things. I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t at the forefront of my mind.
“The squad has a lot of young lads and not as many senior guys. I suppose I fall in the middle of that with Josh, Tommy Hartley, lads who are in that middle bracket between the young guys and senior players.
“The quality is there, and it will be shown I think next year. I expect us to win some games, definitely.
“There’s an expectancy for Lancashire to win things. It comes with being a huge club, and we embrace the challenge. That’s why I came here. I want to be part of something like that.”
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