LOGO SPOILS HAMMERS KIT
LET’S step outside the bubble of noisy outrage aimed at England cricketer Jofra Archer and tell the true story of a trivial incident which filled so many sporting headlines. We can all agree that the fast bowler should not have made a minor transgression of the regulations concerning the biosecure environment deemed necessary for the staging of elite sports fixtures even without crowds.
It was a foolish mistake – but it was no more than that.
It did not merit the confection of fury that followed; it did not merit the pious sermons of criticism.
It was said gravely that Archer’s actions “could have cost cricket tens of millions of pounds.”
Well, firstly, it did not cost tens of millions.
Secondly, the risk of this was extremely low when what the England star did was take a short detour alone in his car to his private home rather than drive directly from one cricket ground to another.
The risk was minimal, on the road to negligible – personally for the player and financially for the whole sport.
Now, if Archer had gone to a pub at its full capacity, if he had gone shopping, if he had joined a group of friends having a get-together in a park in proximity to many other people – well, maybe there was some risk.
He went home for a couple of hours.
There is an easy way to put this into perspective.the Premier League has been staging matches all round the country for several weeks, with strict bio-bubbles at stadiums. But the footballers, hundreds of them, are still living at home.they go home after games, they go home after training.
There have been no positive tests for Covid-19 for weeks.there have been no matches lost. Millions of pounds, probably billions of pounds in the case of Premier League finances, have not been put at risk.
Understand this, and you can see why Archer’s mistake is, in reality, so trivial.
It also illustrates that cricket’s intensely strict bio-bubble regulations, conceived amid the worst of the pandemic crisis, are now excessive – too extreme, too draconian.
Safety is important, of course it is, but so is keeping life as normal as possible.
If you make young sportsmen complete prisoners it seems to me almost inevitable that someone along the way will make a foolish and minor error of judgement.
Archer is out of the current second Test match against the West Indies.we are told there will be a disciplinary hearing. But to what purpose?
This engaging cricketer knows that he messed up, he has been overflowing in his apologies, and five days of needless isolation in his hotel room at the ground will be a morale-sapping punishment.
He reminds me very much of an England player of years gone by, Ben
Hollioake, who
ENGLAND cricket fans moan when there are crazy batting collapses caused by loose shots. Then they complain because Dominic Sibley scores too slowly in reaching a Test century. Make your minds up, people.
WEST HAM have launched a new away kit, which draws inspiration from a famous strip of the 1960s worn by Bobby Moore (far left), Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters.
It features two horizontal bands of claret across a sleek, collarless light blue top. The original was one of the finest football shirts in history.
The new one, modelled here by Mark Noble, can never be that --- not when it is also tackily emblazoned with the name of a betting company. was a blazing natural talent, a free spirit, a social person.
Hollioake once spoke with moving candour of how he felt a prisoner while batting in the nets in practice; that he hated to be hemmed in.
The contrition of Archer for his mistake is genuine, and there is sympathy rather than heavy moral outrage here.
ENGLAND need to look after him rather than ban him for more matches, as some suggest.that would be punishment for public show only. That’s what the bio-bubble excess is – about appearances, about showing the world that every possible safety precaution has been taken rather than what is truly required.
If Premier League footballers can go home, so can England cricketers.
There is another truth that needs to be told as well.
Bio-secure sporting events make decent television entertainment, particularly with fake crowd noise, and I’m glad they are taking place.
It is important to resume the playing of games, it is wise to protect the finances of professional sports and to ensure issues like promotion and relegation are settled on the field of play.
But they are rotten to actually attend.
I have been to a few of these football matches and I wouldn’t recommend them as a day out. Inside these sterile arenas you feel as if you are trapped in a weird make-believe world.
There was a new enhanced safety protocol for going to the FA Cup semi-final atwembley yesterday evening, to sit in the stands far from the players, two metres apart from other reporters, and with no interaction with anybody personally.
The medical screening on arrival demanded measurement of your pulse rate, oxygen saturation and respiratory rates, and also a body temperature check.
Oh yes, the bio-bubble environment was safe.there is nowhere in the whole land safer than these sporting stadiums.
It is also an environment without joy or spirit.all you want to do is get home as quickly as possible.
Just like Jofra Archer.