Dean Jones to commentate on upcoming Lanka-Pak series

Former Australian batsman Dean Jones would be one of the three foreigners who would be part of the Ten Cricket commentary panel for the upcoming Sri Lanka-Pakistan Test and ODI series.

Former Pakistan captain Ramiz Raja and veteran commentator Chishty Mujahid would be alongside controversial Jones in the Ten Cricket commentary box. They would be joined by their Sri Lankan counterparts Russell Arnold, Roshan Abeysinghe and Eric Gauder respectively.

Jones was sacked by his current employers Ten Sports back in August 2006 for an offensive racial remark he made while commentating on the second Test between Sri Lanka and South Africa in Colombo, The Dawn reported.

When Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara was dismissed with a catch by South Africa's Hashim Amla, a devout Muslim, Jones was heard to say that 'the terrorist' has got another wicket although the Australian subsequently maintained that it was an off-air jest to his fellow commentators.

The issue had reportedly caused outrage back in South Africa with viewers jamming the switchboards of Cricket South Africa and SuperSport, whose feed had broadcast the gaffe to South African audiences.

However, Jones who insisted that he had later apologised to Amla over his insulting remark managed to secure work in the electronic media back in Australia, before being hired by an Indian network ahead of the 2007 ICC World Cup in the West Indies.

Right-hander Jones was once hailed as the best ODI batsman of his generation and in 168 games he scored 6068 runs at an average of 44.61 including seven hundreds and 46 fifties, the report added.