Geraint Jones and other cricketers who appeared in a country’s maiden ODI after representing another country

Geraint Jones and other cricketers who appeared in a country's maiden ODI after representing another country

Nov 9, 2014

Geraint Jones became the third cricketer in the history of One-Day International (ODI) cricket to feature in a country’s first ever ODI match, after having played ODIs for another country. Jones featured for Papua New Guinea in their first-ever ODI, which was against Hong Kong and was the first of a two-match ODI series against the same opposition at the Tony Ireland Stadium in Townsville, Australia.

Jones played 34 Tests and 49 ODIs as a wicket-keeper batsman for England between 2004 and 2006, after which he was dropped in favour of Chris Read. Some of the key moments from his brief career were featuring in the 2004 ICC Champions Trophy final for England against West Indies, as well as scoring 71 against Australia in the 2005 NatWest series. After the passage of half-a-decade since his last appearance for England, Jones decided to represent Papua New Guinea, his country-of-birth. He however, is not the only one to do so. Following is the list of all the players who represented a country in their first ever ODI after having represented another country for the same:

There have been three cricketers who have achieved a similar feat, but in Test cricket, which is illustrated in the following table: