Archer shocks ECB with Barbados appearance

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – England fast bowler Jofra Archer made a surprise appearance for his relegation-threatened alma mater, Foundation School in the Barbados Cricket Association’s Division 1 championship on Sunday.

Reports in the British media indicated that Archer, who was raised in Barbados before moving to England eight years ago, used the opportunity to play for Foundation in the second tier of the BCA league to step up his recovery from injury without the knowledge of anyone at the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).

The 28-year-old grabbed four wickets for 18 and helped Foundation bowl out Lords for 114 in their first innings on the first day of the three-day match at Church Hill. He made 11 when the school side started their reply, but they were scrambling on 78 for eight at the close and will be without Archer when the match ends this coming Saturday and Sunday because the speedster returned to England on the same day.

“I’m not aware of that – I’ll find out,” Managing Director of England men’s cricket, Robert Key said when he was asked about Archer playing in the match during a news conference to announce the England Test squad to tour India from January.

Archer was not named in the squad, and he has not played for England since March because of an elbow injury that required surgery. He is centrally contracted to the ECB, having signed a two-year deal this past October despite his ongoing injury issues, and his playing commitments must be cleared by them.

The ECB reportedly blocked Archer from putting himself forward for the Indian Premier League auction scheduled to take place next Tuesday, December 19, in Dubai to prioritise his long-term recovery from the injuries that have plagued him over the past two years.

He bowled with pace and hostility in the nets this past Friday when the England One-day International squad trained at Kensington Oval ahead of their deciding third match against West Indies. The work-out was part of the monitoring of his injury, and a few of the England batsmen appeared genuinely rattled by the bounce he extracted from the flat surface in comparison to other members of the pace attack.

Key said England were “taking control” of the return of Archer after a series of injuries, including a stress fracture of the back, have kept him out of Tests for the past two years and limited him to playing only seven white ball matches this past year.

“Jofra was bowling out here,” Key said. “As you often see with Jofra, he rocks up and you think ‘what’s going to happen here?’, and he ends up bowling 95 miles an hour, and he looks like he’s an absolute genius.

“But we’re just going to take it slow with him. We don’t want to put any sort of deadlines on him. That’s what we’ve done in the past, and we’re trying to learn from what we’ve done in the past with Jofra.”

Key added: “Now we’re taking control of him coming back. We’re not going to say, ‘you need to get back for this part here’. From what they’ve (medical staff) said, an elbow injury is a complicated place to have an injury, so we just want to take this as slow as possible.

“Jofra was keen to go into the (IPL) auction, but we just feel like, actually, the best way to do this now is just for us to be in control of it. There’s no commitment either way, and we can then just bring you back. If it takes an extra couple of months, but he gets another couple of years out of his career and gets back fully, I think he’s worth his weight in gold.”

Archer has appeared in 13 Tests, 21 ODIs, and 15 Twenty20 Internationals for England since making his international debut in May 2019. He has taken over 100 international wickets and helped England win the ICC Men’s ODI Cricket World Cup four years ago on home soil.

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