Freak accident ends Jones' tour

Simon Jones' tour of Australia ended yesterday after a freak accident led to the Glamorgan fast bowler being carried out of the Gabba on a stretcher and taken to hospital in Brisbane. Playing in his first Test against Australia, the athletic Jones was chasing after a ball to the boundary when he fell awkwardly. The result was a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee.

The serious injury to the 23-year-old finished off what was a disastrous day for Nasser Hussain's side as Australia rattled up 364 for 2 after being asked to bat first by the England captain on a belter of a pitch. Before the injury Jones had started well. Bowling at over 90mph he had dismissed Justin Langer with a good ball and was looking England's most dangerous bowler.

However, the pain felt by Hussain's side will be nothing compared to that of Jones, who now faces reconstructive surgery and at least six months out of the game.

"The ball went past me and I just went into a regulation slide after it," Jones said. "The grass is different here though – it's more sandy-based because they play Aussie Rules football on the same surface – and my studs caught and I landed awkwardly on my right knee.

"It didn't really hurt that much to be honest. I just knew there was something wrong immediately and that I had to lay still and wait. I broke my left leg playing rugby when I was 17 and I've also had stress fractures of the shin and the foot.

"I've come back from those injuries so I'm backing myself to come back from this too."

"Surgery is fantastic these days and so is rehabilitation," Kirk Russell, the England physiotherapist, said. "I've never seen this type of injury in cricket before – it's a freak accident."

Jones' operation will take place when he returns to Britain in two weeks' time. The Welsh pace bowler cannot return any earlier than that because a long haul flight will lead to further swelling of the knee. At the conclusion of this game he will fly to the National Academy in Adelaide to be looked after until the knee has settled down.

In Adelaide Jones will meet up with Darren Gough who is having intensive treatment on his knee problem.With Andrew Flintoff still recovering from a double hernia and Stephen Harmison suffering from shin splints the casualty list of England's fast bowlers is reaching epidemic proportions. Four have been unfit or injured in the first three weeks of the tour.

Though England will delay making a decision to replace Jones until the weekend, Lancashire's James Anderson or Hampshire's Chris Tremlett may soon be packing their bags.

The view from down under

Australian newspapers merciless in condemning England's 'familiar first-day Ashes belly-flop'

"In his newspaper column, Hussain also revealed he did not sleep much during a Test match. With the possible nightmares inspired from day one, perhaps it is just as well."

The Age, Melbourne

"The decision of the England captain to send Australia in exploded in stunning style, setting the tone for what seems certain to be another one-sided Ashes series."

Trevor Marshallsea, Sydney Morning Herald

"A team needing everything to go right had everything go wrong. Australia's batsmen hit or cleared the boundary 44 times as England experienced its familiar first-day Ashes belly-flop. But for all that, the main talking point was Hussain's decision to bowl first on a wicket that played as it looked ­ flat."

Robert Craddock, Herald Sun, Melbourne

"The England cricket team, a shell of the once great sides that made the Ashes series such a famous contest, has been buried by its own faint heart and bad fortune on the first day."

Adrian McGregor, The Mercury, Hobart

"The English are at it again, talking about the resurgence of their team. Yet theirs is a land of hope, not glory."

Sydney Morning Herald