Jones takes CI captaincy from Dougherty

Jones, the former Ireland international, succeeds Chris Dougherty who has commitments with both the Northern Knights and Ireland A and wants to concentrate on breaking into the full Ireland set-up.

CI moved quickly to appoint Jones, the long-time captain of Civil Service North, as his successor.

Jones captained the Stormont club to two Challenge Cup finals during a spell at the helm between 2007 and 2014 and is the ideal candidate to lead a team of big names including Justin Kemp and Johnny Thompson.

Jones said: “Doc wants to give it a push if you like for Ireland, whether he makes the breakthrough in three-day or one-day cricket, he wants to give it a big go this summer, and me taking on the captaincy takes the pressure off him.

“Doc is very well liked and respected, he did a great job as captain. He actually came to me to see if I would be interested in taking it over and CI have endorsed that. I’m really looking forward to the challenge. Last year was about getting my feet under the table at CI, getting used to a new club and a new environment after so long at North, so now I’m really ready to give something back.”

Jones will once again get the opportunity to work with fast bowler Allen Coulter, a long-time team-mate at Stormont.

But he has made developing young players like John Matchett one of his chief objectives this summer.

“I’m looking forward to working with our club coach Derek Heasley to help the younger players on both the firsts and the seconds, and in the under age groups,” he added.

Jones added that he wasn’t phased at the prospect of captaining Justin Kemp, the big-name South African all-rounder.

“It won’t bother me at all, I will look upon him as just another cricketer. I’m sure there will be plenty of days when he will make the ball disappear and his bowling should be pretty threatening on our pitches.”