Dean Jones explains his decision to abruptly retire after the 1994 South Africa tour

Dean Jones, the former Australian cricketer, has revealed the reasons behind his abrupt retirement during the tour of South Africa back in 1994. In the first seven games of the eight-match series, Jones only managed 151 runs at an average of 21.57 with a top score of 67. Though the Aussies hadn’t won the series, they had taken an unassailable lead with the score-line showing 4-3.

Going into the final ODI in Bloemfontein, the Victoria-born Jones was left out and the decision didn’t go down well with him by any stretch of the imagination. The management then asked Jones to continue for a bit long, but the batsman didn’t budge.

Well, that’s it, I’m done: Dean Jones

“I was in South Africa, they picked me to go over there and then they knocked off me from the one-day team. It was 3-3 (4-3), we were playing the last game, everything was on the line, and Mark Taylor and David Boon picked themselves before me,” Jones was quoted as saying during a chat with Shane Watson on Lessons Learnt with the Greats podcast.

“I said, ‘Are you trying to tell me that you’re a better player than me, in one-day cricket? Really? Well, that’s it, I’m done.’ And I retired straightaway [he continued to play first-class cricket till 1998]. That was it. They said, ‘No, you got to go to Sharjah to play all these one-day series.’ I’m going no, I went on, (and) that was it. No thank you, no nothing. That was it,” he added.

In his career that spanned 10 years from 1984 to 1994, Jones played 52 Tests and 164 ODIs where he scored 3,531 and 6,068 runs respectively. He also boasted of 18 centuries and 60 half-centuries at the highest level. Overall, Jones went on to amass over 29,000 runs, combining first-class and List A cricket to go with 74 tons and 160 fifties. He retired from all forms of cricket after 1997-98.

The now 59-year-old Jones is currently one of the most popular commentators around the world. He has worked as a commentator in tournaments like the Indian Premier League (IPL) and the Pakistan Super League (PSL).