puddleduck
Chairman of Selectors
Sorry but I have to step in here just far too much uninformed posting going on 
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If your going to say you prefer having Jones in the team to Read that is fair enough, and there are many reasons why that could be the case. To say that he is the best of the lot in terms of keeping is so far from the truth it is on a different planet.
Reads keeping is without much doubt the best in the country, by a long way. He was never dropped because his keeping wasn't good enough, he was dropped because at the time in test cricket he couldn't get the ball off the square when he batted. It was compounded when he ducked out of a full toss and was bowled looking like a joke. However his glovework was still impeccable and always has been.
So to conclude on that one, anyone saying Jones is the better gloveman needs his eyes checked.
Also JamesyJames you said that Jones was fantastic in India? I watched every ball of the entire test series, and also saw all of the Odis that he played in. If that is fantastic than the standard of wicket-keeping has reached an all-time low. In the first test he missed Kumble who went on to hit a 50. He didn't get near a single stumping, missed a fair few thin edges including Raina just before him and Yuvraj built a match winning partnership in the Odis and generally was probably just below average as a wicket-keeper. You could go as far as to say his two costliest mistakes actually lost England momentum on two different occasions that in the end cost them two games.
All in all Geraint Jones as a test class wicket-keeper is poor, anyone who tries to say otherwise is kidding themselves. One of his only good series with the gloves was in Pakistan where he dropped nothing of note, although with the pitches offering little to no movement and the swing from the kookaburra ball dying early it was the easiest conditions you will ever find for a wicket-keeper. With the bat he was shocking, on pitches that merely required patience to bat on, but then he was not the only person.
And finally Gary0808, when it came to keeping Prior did not actually make any sloppy errors in the Odis when keeping. He took a good stumping, and all in all was reasonably solid behind the stumps, however that was a very good game for him and generally he is probably worse than Jones.
Your comment that lets face it the current crop of Englands keepers will make mistakes on the big stage is pretty wide of the mark. If you want an impeccable gloveman then you would pick Read and see little to no mistakes behind the stumps. However whether mentally he has the constitution to be a success at Test cricket is still debateable, and it is because of that, that Geraint Jones is currently ahead of him in the pecking order.
As a side point, Foster is almost certainly a better keeper than Jones, and a better batsman than Read, but whether that means he should be playing for England is an entirely different matter.
:If your going to say you prefer having Jones in the team to Read that is fair enough, and there are many reasons why that could be the case. To say that he is the best of the lot in terms of keeping is so far from the truth it is on a different planet.
Reads keeping is without much doubt the best in the country, by a long way. He was never dropped because his keeping wasn't good enough, he was dropped because at the time in test cricket he couldn't get the ball off the square when he batted. It was compounded when he ducked out of a full toss and was bowled looking like a joke. However his glovework was still impeccable and always has been.
So to conclude on that one, anyone saying Jones is the better gloveman needs his eyes checked.
Also JamesyJames you said that Jones was fantastic in India? I watched every ball of the entire test series, and also saw all of the Odis that he played in. If that is fantastic than the standard of wicket-keeping has reached an all-time low. In the first test he missed Kumble who went on to hit a 50. He didn't get near a single stumping, missed a fair few thin edges including Raina just before him and Yuvraj built a match winning partnership in the Odis and generally was probably just below average as a wicket-keeper. You could go as far as to say his two costliest mistakes actually lost England momentum on two different occasions that in the end cost them two games.
All in all Geraint Jones as a test class wicket-keeper is poor, anyone who tries to say otherwise is kidding themselves. One of his only good series with the gloves was in Pakistan where he dropped nothing of note, although with the pitches offering little to no movement and the swing from the kookaburra ball dying early it was the easiest conditions you will ever find for a wicket-keeper. With the bat he was shocking, on pitches that merely required patience to bat on, but then he was not the only person.
And finally Gary0808, when it came to keeping Prior did not actually make any sloppy errors in the Odis when keeping. He took a good stumping, and all in all was reasonably solid behind the stumps, however that was a very good game for him and generally he is probably worse than Jones.
Your comment that lets face it the current crop of Englands keepers will make mistakes on the big stage is pretty wide of the mark. If you want an impeccable gloveman then you would pick Read and see little to no mistakes behind the stumps. However whether mentally he has the constitution to be a success at Test cricket is still debateable, and it is because of that, that Geraint Jones is currently ahead of him in the pecking order.
As a side point, Foster is almost certainly a better keeper than Jones, and a better batsman than Read, but whether that means he should be playing for England is an entirely different matter.
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