Jofra Archer: I was angry with West Indies
Jofra Archer is as laidback and quietly-spoken away from the cricket pitch as he is brutal at the bowling crease, so it is a surprise when you hear the new sensation of English cricket speak of his anger at those who run West Indies cricket.
Yet, if you ask Sussex’s 22-year-old Barbados-born fast bowler to explain why he left his homeland and moved to further his career in England, it is clear that he feels a sense of injustice towards those in charge of cricket in his native region. “I was angry with the West Indies, so that helped me with my decision to come and try to play for England,” he says.
Followers of the national team are going to have to wait for Archer. Although he has a British father, he is not eligible to play for England until 2022. Under ECB rules introduced in 2012, he must complete a seven-year residency period.
Archer took 61 championship wickets last season, making him Sussex’s leading wicket-taker by some distance, but while county cricket aficionados have been talking about him for a couple of years, it was his recent stint with Hobart Hurricanes in the Big Bash League that has catapulted him on to the world stage and led to a life-changing Indian Premier League deal, having been bought by the Rajasthan Royals for £800,000 in last month’s auction.
So, while the riches of the global Twenty20 circuit are flooding in, Archer is determined to wait to play international cricket. “I can play in the T20 competitions and in county cricket until the time comes,” he says.
“The T20 leagues are giving me good experience. If I can keep doing this for another five years, it should stand me well if I get the opportunity to play for England. It’s teaching me about pressure and hopefully means I won’t be nervous if I play international cricket and I will know my game inside and out and can make an impact immediately.”
There is no sense of bitterness about Archer — his career is evolving too well for that — but he felt utterly unsupported and unloved by those in charge of West Indies cricket at the time. He made his way through the Barbados age-group system and into the West Indies under-19 team. But, in 2014, he was not selected for their under-19 World Cup squad — a decision that left him disillusioned with the West Indies cricket board.
“It wasn’t really anything to do with injuries,” Archer, who will play for Quetta Gladiators in the Pakistan Super League that starts today, says. “I wasn’t selected, so I had to think about what to do next. Once I knew it was an option, it was an easy decision to move to England.”
Archer was tempted over by his fellow Bajan and now Sussex team-mate Chris Jordan, who intervened in 2015 to stop him going to Northamptonshire. He opted instead for Sussex, where he played club cricket for Middleton and then Horsham before being given a trial by the county who recognised his natural, if slightly raw, talent and immediately started working with him. Last year he signed a contract that will see him stay until 2020.
It was his first-class debut in 2016 against the touring Pakistan team that first got people talking. Steaming up the hill from the Sea End at Hove, Archer ripped through the Pakistan top order taking four wickets including that of Test batsmen Azhar Ali and Misbah-ul-Haq. “I didn’t know I was going to play in that match until the day before,” he said. “We were playing a second XI match against Essex and I was on the bus to that and then our coach said, ‘You’re playing against Pakistan’. I was a bit shocked but from that game everything has been a whirlwind. I made my championship debut shortly after and then T20 debut and I got young player of the year that year.”
Despite the prospect of almost another five years’ wait, Archer is adamant that any future international career would be with England. In answer to the question of whether he had thought about changing his mind and making himself available for West Indies, for whom he would be immediately eligible, there’s a little smile and a simple: “No, I’m fine thanks.”
Archer’s mother and sister still live in Barbados and now his career has taken off, he helps them out financially. “With the IPL money, I can change my life and the lives of my family,” he says.
“I am so grateful just to have the opportunity to play. The money is only a bonus. I want to help my family out and I’m hopefully going to buy a place to live within walking distance of the Sussex ground. I’m going to try and pay for my family to come over to Sussex this summer to see some cricket. I’ve already started helping them financially. I want to make sure they live comfortably. Hove feels like home.”.
To many it feels a great shame that someone as talented as Archer is not playing for West Indies — goodness knows they could do with a player of his qualities. Yet it is indicative of modern cricket that Archer can earn considerably more and get more support playing for England than West Indies and in the meantime he can earn even more plying his trade in T20 leagues.
After spending time talking to and watching Archer play, one cannot help but feel that, with greater foresight and the desire to support a young bowler, West Indies’ cricket may not have lost such an exciting cricketer. International cricket’s loss is county cricket’s gain, however. Archer has to spend 295 days a year “in residence” to meet the qualification criteria so, for at least the next five years, Sussex fans can see him in action in all formats.
There was one point when he might have been tempted away from the game altogether — by football. “I probably could have played for the national football team but, when I was growing up, football wasn’t such a good career in Barbados,” he said. “I definitely made the right decision to go into cricket.”
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/jofra-archer-i-was-angry-with-west-indies-7067lh0ld
ne to watch out for future.
