Jones burns hole in pocket

MELBOURNE: Under-fire Australian commentator Dean Jones stands to lose $ 2,615 a day of his professional fees after being fired from his job for making a derogatory remark on a South African Muslim cricketer while on air. Jones referred to Hashim Amla as “the terrorist” during what he thought was an advertisement break on the fourth day of the Test between Sri Lanka and South Africa, offending viewers and sparking instant condemnation worldwide.

Ten Sports, the production company that hired Jones, terminated his contract with “immediate effect,” and have promised never to employ the former Australian cricketer again.

“This is a deal-breaker for us and he won’t be employed again,” Ray Reed, Communication Director of the Dubai-based company said. “We are a company with a diverse range of employees and we take a zero-tolerance approach to comments like that,” he was quoted as saying in the ‘Sydney Morning Herald’ today.

Jones has not just raised the ire of South African viewers and his former employers, but also appears to have infuriated the International Cricket Council which said Jones’ comment was “completely unacceptable”.

ICC Media Manager Brian Murgatroyd said: “We are in the process of beefing up our anti-racism code as we speak, and this kind of comment is completely unacceptable.”

Jones, however, sought to put up a brave face.

“I’m employed in the next two months, so I’m OK,” Jones said yesterday without revealing where he would be working. Jones was probably drawing confidence from the statement of his employers at a radio station for whom he has been working for the last two years during the summer months.

“He is still a, quote-unquote, required player,” Clark Forbes, programme director of Melbourne radio station 3AW told the daily. “We wouldn’t be changing our contractual arrangements on that basis.”

Meanwhile, Amla’s father Mohamed said he would forgive Jones for his insensitive remark.

“What he said is unfortunate but I think I will forgive him,” he told South African daily ‘The Mercury’.