Simon Jones has accused Australia of 'sour grapes' after claims England used mints to generate extra reverse swing during their Ashes series victory.

The Glamorgan seamer is undergoing rehabilitation for an operation on his right ankle which has ruled him out of the pre-Christmas tour to Pakistan.

And he was stunned to learn England?s Ashes achievement was being tarnished in Australia by such claims.

Worcestershire?s new overseas signing Nathan Bracken, who has played three Tests for Australia, told a Sydney radio station that England?s ability to reverseswing to such devastating effect this summer was more to do with sucking sweets than natural ability.

The New South Wales leftarm seamer believes England?s players sucked a special brand of mints, which sweetened their saliva and aided the ball reverseswinging later in the innings. The superb reverse swing of England?s pace bowlers was a contributory factor to Australia?s defeat.

?It?s a breath mint which makes your saliva very sugary,? said Bracken, who is contracted to Worcestershire for the next two seasons.

?At Gloucestershire, as soon as we wanted the ball to go ?Irish?, the captain would call and they would bring out some of those mints and it would work.?

But Jones, who claimed 18 wickets during the Ashes triumph and is regarded as one of the finest exponents of reverse swing in world cricket, has ridiculed Bracken?s claims and believes it is Australia?s way of handling their shock defeat.

?It?s probably just sour grapes and are you telling me that they?ve not done it?? questioned Jones.

?What?s happened on the field, happened on the field and I can?t believe he?s made that comment.

?I can?t believe that a guy who didn?t even play in the series has come out with such a comment.

?If he?d been someone that had played in the series then fair enough because he might have seen something in the field.?

The use of mints and sweets to aid reverse swing is by no means a modern phenomenon with similar instances littering both county and international cricket for decades to varied amounts of success.

But Jones and England are clearly riled at Bracken?s suggestions, which effectively breaks cricket?s code of silence surrounding some of the dark arts which make up the modern game, even though sucking mints does not strictly break the laws of cricket.

?It?s a silly comment to make,? said Jones. ?I don?t use mints and I?m not sure whether any of the other lads use them or not.

?Playing at Old Trafford this summer the surface was so rough that the ball was reverse-swinging naturally anyway.?

Away from that ongoing controversy, Jones has been concentrating on making his recovery from an ankle operation he underwent at the beginning of the month.

That has sidelined him for Pakistan but should allow for Jones to recover in time for the tour to India in mid-February.

?There?s no real swelling after the operation, I?ve been walking pretty quickly and it?s feeling good,? he stressed.

?I?m not going to try to rush back because I?ve got plenty of time before India and I?ll utilise that as much as I can.

?You can rush back and sometimes things can go wrong so I?m going to utilise the academy facilities here at Loughborough and in Cardiff and let it take as long as it takes.?

Jones is hopeful of resuming bowling again in around five or six weeks, by which time bowling coach Troy Cooley will have returned from his stint with the senior squad in Pakistan to supervise his return to fitness.

?I haven?t really worked with many bowling coaches of Troy?s quality,? added Jones.

?He works with you in the gym, has a good knowledge of bio-mechanics and the body and he is also realistic.

?He never asks you to do something he knows you can?t do. He likes you to know your body and work with it.?