According to the Telegraph, English brand Jofra Archer played for the Barbados club without the consent of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). The fast bowler made a surprise appearance for her old school team, the Foundation, in Barbados.
ECB CEO Rob Key also claimed he did not know Jofra Archer played for the Barbados club.
When asked about the same, he was taken aback and said (quoted by the Telegraph): “I’m not aware of that. I’ll find out.”
The ECB have been handling Jofra Archer very carefully due to his injury problems. She missed a lot of cricket action due to elbow problems. She recently returned to cricket during the ODI series against South Africa. He also played a few matches in IPL but was again ruled out of action due to the injury.
Later, he was part of the England team as a traveling reserve for the World Cup. The fast bowler underwent rehabilitation while he practiced alongside the team. However, he experienced pain and then returned home.
He was expected to return through the West Indies series but to make matters worse he was ruled out of the entire tour. However, he trained with the team in Barbados, but then, unbeknownst to him, participated in cricket at club level. It should be noted that the pacemaker stayed in Barbados before the 2019 World Cup.
Jofra Archer played quite well during the game for Barbados and returned with figures of 4-18 on the first day of the game. The pacer bowled some fiery balls but also picked a wicket with his left-arm spin.
I think he’s worth his weight in gold – Rob Key on Jofra Archer
Roy Key spoke about how they are slowly managing Jofra Archer’s return and revealed that they have not given him any deadline. He also added that the pacer really wanted to participate in the IPL auction but they didn’t let him. He explained:
“Jofra was bowling here. As you often see with Jofra, he moves and you think about what’s going to happen here, and he ends up bowling at 95 miles an hour and it looks like he’s an absolute genius. But let’s take things easy with him. We don’t want to put any kind of deadline on it.
“Jofra really wanted to participate in the IPL auction, but we believe that actually the best way to do it now is for us to be in control. There is no commitment either way and then we can bring it back. If he takes a couple more months, but he gets a couple more years out of his career and comes back fully… I think he’s worth his weight in gold.”
England are hopeful that Jofra Archer will be fit for the T20 World Cup 2024. It remains to be seen when he will return.
