Simon Jones aims to be No. 1

Simon Jones: 'I want to try and become world No.1 in the next year' © Getty Images

The fit-again England fast bowler Simon Jones wants to become the best bowler in the world in 2006, beginning with the tour of India next month.

In a major interview in the February issue of The Wisden Cricketer magazine, Jones says: "I want to try and become world No.1 in the next year. I want to have a go at it."

To achieve his goal Jones, currently ranked 18th behind top-of-the-table Glenn McGrath and England team mates Andrew Flintoff (5), Matthew Hoggard (11) and Steve Harmison (15), will once again need to prove his fitness.

Talking about his well-chronicled injury problems he tells the magazine: "I'm pretty realistic, I'm as fit as I ever can be, but you can't exactly prepare your bones to play. My knee was a freak injury. There's nothing I could have done about that. This one has just come from wear and tear. Everyone gets injuries, every bowler in the world. I've just been unfortunate that mine have been quite lengthy ones.

"You realise you get sent these tests every now and again, they're there to see how you deal with them and if you can't push yourself that extra bit harder to get back from them."

Jones believes last summer's Ashes success has raised his stock with the England captain Michael Vaughan. Before Australia he was regarded as a reverse swing specialist, often not tossed the ball until it was dirt-brown. "There's nothing I could do: I couldn't go up and say 'Look, Vaughany, I want to bowl,' because maybe I wasn't in his plan of attack. So I took it on the chin and worked my socks off last summer."

"People labelled me a one-trick pony at the start of the series," he says. "But when I bowled those spells at Trent Bridge I was bowling with a normal ball and swinging it conventionally."

Jones claimed 18 Aussie scalps in four Tests. "I think I've gone up a little bit in his [Vaughan's] estimations," he says modestly.

But not content with his current armoury of deliveries, Jones has been working on a looping trajectory, Shoaib Akhtar-like slower ball. "I can bowl one at 95 miles-an-hour; I did it in South Africa. It's just about getting it right; Troy [Cooley] and I have been working on different ball positions. Hopefully this year I'm going to be rolling out a good slower ball."

Talking of Cooley, Jones says his decision to return home is, a "sickening blow". "England are going to lose a very, very good bowling coach and I'm going to lose a very good friend," he says.

A new approach to his game includes curbing his temper, which has made him the England player with the shortest fuse and the most frequent visitor to the match referee's office. It was not always the case. "When I first came to the Academy I was a lot shyer than I am now. Rod Marsh really brought me out of my shell. Now I'm thinking you're here to do a job and, if you're intimidating someone, then you're doing a good job and don't worry about it."

So does he ever regret his actions? "No, I've never regretted them to be honest because I've never done anything that bad." Nevertheless, he does plan to learn more self-control. "Yeah definitely. I'd be skint otherwise."