"You have to sometimes wonder: ‘Why I am still doing this to myself?’" England Fast bowler Simon Jones said.
"It’s heartbreaking. To go from such a high to four years of such rotten luck – it’s unfair. It’s as if someone’s saying to me: ‘The best thing you can achieve in cricket is winning the Ashes – you’ve had the taste, now that’s it.’ It’s bloody hard, gut-wrenching.
"Sometimes I’m sat in the changing room and you hear younger lads complaining, and I’m like: ‘Mate, you don’t know how lucky you are. You could be grafting your arse off in the gym.’ People not appreciating the position they’re in, that frustrates me."
"I’d had them all series," Jones said. "We calmed it down with a few injections. At points I was playing through proper pain but the adrenaline keeps you going. There was no way you were going to stop me. By the end I was in absolute agony, I couldn’t walk to the toilet in my bedroom, I was really struggling. I’d got five wickets in the first innings (in Nottingham), we made Australia follow on and I couldn’t get back on the field."
"It was very frustrating for me," said Jones about his absence from those triumphant five days in south London, adding that nothing could make him play the special clash, "We tried everything – faith healers, the lot. A woman came round to the hotel to do her thing, but unfortunately it didn’t work."
"People just don’t think sometimes. Like I was walking to the ground at Worcester the other day with the physio. This guy walked straight up to me in my face and said: ‘Stop limping and start bowling.’ I just laughed. The physio said: ‘Mate, I can’t believe that bloke’s done that.’ I said: ‘It’s one of the things you have to put up with. You can’t do anything, just accept the fact he’s a prat.’
"He wouldn’t do that do a normal bloke on the street because he wouldn’t get away with it. I would never ever do anything like that," Jones said.
"me and Matt Maynard (the Glamorgan director of cricket) couldn’t come to any agreement on the contract. He wanted a pay-as-you-play and I felt my fitness was fine.
"I felt I’d been so loyal to the club, I had an England contract so could’ve gone anywhere but I stuck with Glamorgan. I felt let down, really let down. I told him that and we had to part. I had to do what was best for me and my family," he said.
"You’ve got to be positive if you’re a sportsman or you’re in trouble. Especially the luck I’ve had. People always ask when I come back if I’ve lost any pace. I haven’t. And my body hasn’t been caned with overs. I’ve been lucky enough to stay fit and strong when I’ve had the chance."