Back when they were batting at six and seven in the England Test team, if you had told Paul Collingwood and Geraint Jones that, in a few years' time they would be facing off in a crucial Papua New Guinea v Scotland Twenty20 match, they might have exchanged an odd look before carefully backing away.

Yet it will come to pass this morning, and Jones - playing for the nation of his birth after his England career ended - has been keeping track of his old partner's progress as Scotland coach.

"I've been seeing him on Twitter enjoying the golf courses and what Dubai has to offer," Jones says with a grin. "Colly's had a fantastic career and the knowledge he's got . . . he's a T20 World Cup winner. If they've got any sense they'll be looking to use him long term. We're good friends from when we played so it'll be good to catch up tomorrow."

After winning both their warm-up matches - they beat Ireland on the way - and their two opening ties of the tournament, Papua New Guinea have run aground a little. On Tuesday, they were coshed by a 22-ball half-century from Nepal's Binod Bandhari, and in the previous encounter against Afghanistan they were foiled by a cruel whim of the weather.

"Since when does it rain in the desert?" sighs Jones. "It was disappointing. We'd put a good total on the board there, you know, in Twenty20 every time you get close to 170 . . . I've played in so many of those shortened games where it's heavily in the batting side's favour. For us to take it to the last ball was an exceptional effort."

Despite those near-heroics from the bowlers, the team's batsmen have been the stars so far, whacking their way to intimidating totals. Pick of the lot was a magical century from opener Tony Ura to help post 193 in the victory over the Netherlands.

"It was proper clean striking," acknowledges Jones. "The other opener's got a contract with a Big Bash team, so that's where we're strong. The guys are exceptional, as it's tough circumstances for them to get to the top. They've got to make huge amounts of sacrifices to come away to these kinds of tournaments.

"One of the guys [Kila Palla] works on the docks on Port Morseby and he's had to negotiate hard with his employer to get the time off. He's proven to be one of our revelations, scoring heavily, and there's going to have to be a decision to make about his future when he goes back. He's put in a huge amount of work to get here and it's paid off for him."

Although Jones is keen to give something back to the country he left at the age of six, playing for the Pacific nation is far from a chore and his enthusiasm bubbles over when he talks of his time here. "It's been great," he says. "One of the best things I've ever done. I love every minute because they're a friendly bunch, always laughing and giggling. It's a crucial time for PNG cricket; it's on the way up in terms of its acknowledgement as a sport. And with the Kumuls not doing too well in the rugby league World Cup . . . if we can do good things in this tournament it can only help the cricket back home."

While their skyscraping team hotel in downtown Dubai is certainly a match for any of the England set-up's opulence, this remains a threadbare operation, albeit one that the Papa New Guinea group make up for in enthusiasm. "It's just numbers, really," Jones says. "In this tournament there's a media guy, there's an analyst, we've got Paul Strang [the former Zimbabwe spinner] on board as our assistant coach, so in terms of that kind of thing it's moving forward for sure. [Last time] it was just head coach, physio, a bit of a skeleton staff. It's still worlds apart from how things are run in England."

His old side, of course, are about to embark on the second leg of a whirlwind Ashes double-header. The television coverage in the Middle East, however, is not quite as comprehensive as Sky's wall-to-wall cricketing night-feast in England.

"I would watch it if I could get it in my room!" Jones laughs. "I'd love to be able to watch while I'm here. I'll be keeping up to date on the internet. It's building up well. The Australians have had their issues but Darren Lehmann coming on board seems to have simplified things, getting the guys enjoying it a bit more. They're dangerous. England have their work cut out."

Jones and Collingwood will both hope to wake up this morning to the news that Alastair Cook has won the toss and slowly ground the Australian attack into the Gabba dirt. Their wishes will diverge later on.