Melanie Jones has played five Tests and 61 ODIs for Australia besides representing the Victoria women’s team during her outstanding cricket career. After retirement she took up cricket commentary and has mostly called in women’s international matches. She also works for a sports management firm back in Australia that manages the likes of Aaron Finch and James Faulkner. As a former cricketer, media expert and management professional, Jones has seen it all in cricket. But she hasn’t let her experience and wisdom diminish her childlike enthusiasm for the game. In India for her maiden television commentary stint for Pepsi IPL 2015, Jones cannot get her eyes off the action on the field even when she is off the microphone. She watches every ball intensely, scribbles down her observations in a white diary she carries with her everyNwhere and is always looking to learn something new – about the tournament, about the players she is watching for the first time and about the art of commentary. One of the four women included in the IPL television commentary crew this year, Jones is like a child in a candy store. Here is her conversation with iplt20.com on her first IPL experience and her methods of preparation before every stint of commentary. How has your first close encounter with the IPL been? It has blown me away. Everything about it has been absolutely brilliant. I am actually pinching myself to make sure if I am really here involved with it all. I have watched the IPL over the years back in Australia since 2008, so I had a bit of an idea what it was all about but you don’t realize actually what it is until you get here. The crowds have been so amazing and the commentators I have been working with have been so supportive. You’re watching the best players in the world all together, so it is like watching a mini World Cup all the time. Often I feel like I am just watching it rather than commentating on it – I get so involved. It has been brilliant. How did this commentary assignment for IPL come about for you? I didn’t really have a lot of time to think about it. When I found out that they want me here, I thought someone was pulling my leg. Once I know it was really hitting off, I only had a handful of weeks to get ready for it. The good thing was that I was still working at home, so I didn’t get too carried away. Since I didn’t have much time on hand, the one thing I was really panicking about was not to be able to prepare well in terms of knowing a lot of Indian players. I am fumbling with the pronunciations of a few Indian names and I am a stickler for that. So, still trying to get that right. You have been doing television commentary for a while now. How different is doing it in the IPL? All my television commentary before this has been for women’s international matches. There the stints are longer and since you know most of the players, you can educate people on them and tell stories. Here the stints are four-overs long. So, everything is short and sharp. But with three commentators it also allows you some breathing time to put together your thoughts so that the point you’re trying to make across is very sharp and broadcast friendly. How do you see this initiative from IPL to engage women commentators? It is a brilliant initiative. I hope people don’t think it is just a gimmick, because it is not. I have spoken to a lot of people at the BCCI and IPL and they know how many women enjoy the game of cricket. It is often said that cricket is a man’s sport but it is not. The club that I play for in Australia is the oldest cricket club in the world, established in 1905. So, women have been involved in this game for a very long time. They invented over-arm bowling. The three other women here – Isa Guha, Anjum Chopra and Lisa Sthalekar – bring a lot of media experience with them. Having women commentators opens up the game to more and more people, which is what you want to see. Do the four of you exchange notes and talk about each other’s performance behind the microphone? Sure. We are like a little team at the moment within a big team. It is like a bowling unit in a cricket team. We are like a little girls unit. We sit down and talk about every game and since it is the first time for all of us, it is nice to get a little text or email of encouragement from each other. But we don’t have to do it a lot because the guys we commentate with are so supportive. We all sit down at the end of the game, discuss our strengths and weaknesses and see how we can do things better. It is almost like going into the dressing room after a day of playing cricket and analyzing the game with your teammates. How would you like to see an IPL-style league for women? The T20 format has really been good for women’s cricket. The women’s World Twenty20 is played alongside the men’s and that has really helped bring in a broader audience to the women’s game. This year there will be a Big Bash for women as well. There are a variety of tournaments that are being shaped around the women’s teams but if women’s cricket came to India into the IPL, it will take the game to a whole new level. What kind of notes do you take in that diary of yours? Most of them are just about the things that are going on into the game. I get so excited about the game that I tend to forget some of the things. I keep notes about the players and the events occurring during a match so I can use refer to them and use in my stints. I also keep a book back home to keep a tab on the results and such. It helps me in my preparation for the next game. I also jot down little phrases for the times when I get the opportunity to lead more. You don’t want to say the same things for every four or six. This is something Alan Wilkins is really good at. So, I take notes that help me sound fresh each time. Have any young Indian players caught your eye in this tournament so far? (Deepak) Hooda has been awesome, particularly with the bat. (Unmukt) Chand the other night (against RCB in Bengaluru) was brilliant. Those two have probably stood out the most for me. I made my IPL Fantasy League team because I thought it would be a good way to study the players. But since I am also working for my company back home, I haven’t really had the time to update my Fantasy team since the last few days. I have to try and get back into the swing of things now.