Kent wicketkeeper Geraint Jones believes the chance to play in September’s ICC World Twenty20 tournament in Sri Lanka is a real possibility.

The 35 year old from Ash will fly off to join up with is Papua New Guinea team-mates in Dubai on Saturday ahead of seven fixtures in seven days starting next Tuesday.

Having been born in PNG, Jones is hoping that his international experience with England will stand him and his team in good stead for the tournament:

“My family spent 10 years in PNG throughout the 1970s and, in the middle of that, I was born,” Jones told Reuters by telephone from the side’s training camp in Australia’s capital city Canberra.

“I spent roughly six years there before we moved to Australia in the early 1980s and that is how playing for PNG now has come about. And because it has been over four years since I played for England, (then) that has also enabled me to be eligible for PNG.”

“I had a good career with England and I learnt a lot from it and I believe I am better player now than I was during my England career,” he said.

“I am very driven. Physically I feel good and I still believe I have got a good few years of playing left in me. I am excited about playing for PNG and see it as an opportunity to play some international cricket again and maybe get to a world cup, which I did not get the chance to do with England.”

Meeting up with the PNG squad in Canberra last week has given Jones the chance to bond with the side and he feels that he couldn’t have been made to feel more welcome:

“They have been absolutely brilliant from the moment the idea of me being selected was discussed,” said Jones.

“One of the things I wanted to make sure was that the players wanted me. I did not want to be someone who just jetted in and was forced upon them.

“They are a group of guys I have got to know and they have given me a new lease of life with cricket, showing how you can play with a smile on your face and enjoy what you are doing.”

Greg Campbell, the general manager of Cricket Papua New Guinea, said the main concern was to ensure the players in the squad were comfortable with Jones’s inclusion.

“It was passed by the boys, all our sponsors and people involved with Cricket PNG,”

“Everyone, even down to people in the local supermarket, has stopped me to say what a wonderful thing it is that he is coming back to us as a test player. They all see the benefit of him coming back.

“We need to climb the rankings and we see ‘Jonesy’ adding that bit of professionalism to us.”

Jones is the one big name in a team who have yet to make their mark on the world stage.

“There’s definitely extra pressure and I have felt it in the training I have done (with the PNG squad),” he said. “I want to show them what has got me to the top with England but what I have also said to them is that in cricket you cannot do it with one person.”

PNG’s route to a top-two finish and a place in Sri Lanka looks to be a tough one given they have been grouped alongside highly-rated Afghanistan – who they face on the tournament’s opening day – and Netherlands, who shocked England by beating them in the opening match of the 2009 Twenty20 World Cup.

“There is no doubt it is going to be tough for us but we have got a quiet, strong, self-belief in what we can do,” Jones said.

“I have been impressed with the players’ natural abilities, for sure. We are an incredible fielding side with the athleticism we have got, our catching is very good and the bowlers’ skills with variations is very good as well.

“If we can put enough runs on the board then I have got a strong belief we can defend them.” Jones’s main role in the side is set to be as a batsman.

“The vice-captain Jack Vare is a wicketkeeper as well,” he said. “It is something we have talked about, that we will probably share the duties.”

If Jones can help pilot PNG through to their first ICC World Twenty20 tournament, there is even the possibility of a match- up against England or even Australia, where he spent his formative years after leaving the country of his birth.

“It would be a bit strange, to go and play against England, there is no doubt about that,” he said. “It is a long way off but I think the experience would be incredible.”