James Redfern Hopes was born 24 October 1978 in Townsville, Queensland. He is an Australian cricketer. Hopes plays domestic cricket for Queensland and for Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League, he has represented Australia in One Day International and Twenty20 cricket. A medium pacer whose aggressive batting has been shuffled around the Queensland top order, Hopes had previously played for AustraliaS-B-Cs Under 19 side as a batsman but as his career has progressed he has become more of a bowling all-rounder. Hopes has opened the batting for Australia in Twenty20 matches and was close to gaining selection in the 2007 World Cup, after being placed on standby for the injured Shane Watson. On 4 March 2008, Hopes scored his maiden ODI half century during his 28th match, scoring 63 off 80 balls against India in the 2nd final of the 2007–08 Commonwealth Bank Series.