ARCHER BACK IN FOLD
Paceman fined £30k, but in line for the third Test
ENGLAND drew a line under the Jofra Archer affair yesterday when they fined and warned him for taking his unscheduled detour to Hove — but made him available for Friday’s third Test against West Indies.
Archer still has to test negative twice for Covid-19 before he can rejoin the team bubble on Tuesday, and will be almost £30,000 out of pocket as a result of his error of judgment.
But with former England captain Michael Vaughan leading the calls for him to be banned for potentially jeopardising the ECB’s biosecure masterplan, Archer may simply be relieved that his punishment was limited to his match fee (he both misses out on the fee for the second Test, and has to repay its equivalent) and a written warning. Regardless, he was said to be ‘full of remorse’.
Ashley Giles, the ECB’s managing director of men’s cricket, had no appetite t o escalate matters — despite saying on Thursday evening that Archer’s decision to visit a friend at his home, rather than head straight to Manchester from the first Test in Southampton, could have been ‘disastrous’ for the English game and cost it ‘tens of millions of pounds’.
But Archer’s ‘ i mpeccable record’ — the words of a dressing-room source — was taken into account during a half-hour disciplinary hearing on Friday evening which also involved his agent, Ian Thomas from the Professional Cricketers’ Association, and John Carr, the ECB’s director of cricket operations.
Until now, the top item on his charge sheet was a spot of high jinks on a Segway before the start of the Test series against New Zealand at Mount Maunganui in November.
His breach of the team’s coronavirus protocol was regarded very much as a first offence, and as a foolish act rather than a malevolent one.
Even so, it was made clear by Giles that his behaviour could have had serious ramifications for English cricket had the person he met infected him with the virus, especially as four international teams — Ireland, Pakistan, Australia and South Africa’s women — are still scheduled to take part in this unique behind- closed- doors summer.
Archer acknowledged t he point, and added an apology to the one he made in a statement when the news broke dramatically on the first morning of this Test. He won’t be making the same mistake again.
The ECB, meanwhile, remained tight-lipped about the identity of his friend, who tested negative after meeting Archer. It is understood, however, not to have been his Sussex team-mate Chris Jordan, who lives in the same Hove apartment block.
The team management are also taking him at his word that he met no more than one person during his circuitous journey north.
While the players wear tracking devices inside the bubble at the Hilton Garden Inn hotel on the premises of Emirates Old Trafford, they are not tracked between venues. As one source put it: ‘They’re adults.’
Archer, who popped out on to his balcony on Friday as Dom Sibley neared his first century in a home Test, is said to be in good spirits, despite being quarantined in his room until tomorrow.
Vice-captain Ben Stokes has spoken about the need for teammates to look after Archer, 25, and several have contacted him via WhatsApp and voice notes in the evenings, once their phones have been returned, in keeping with anti- corruption protocol. Some have even joined him in intra-room Xbox games of his beloved Call of Duty.
England will now consider allowing Archer to use the Old Trafford outfield for some light training before Tuesday, though only once the playing area has been cleared. And, assuming he is fit and healthy, he will almost certainly slot straight back in to the attack in a game England may now need to win to get anything out of this three- match series.
With rain wiping out the third day of the second Test, West Indies came 24 hours closer to retaining the Wisden Trophy, but they will still need to bat sensibly once they resume on 32 for one in reply to England’s 469 for nine. Better weather is forecast today and tomorrow.
England’s best hope will be to enforce the follow- on, which would place a strain on their attack and necessitate another rejig before the teams reconvene in Manchester.
The selectors will then have to decide whether to keep apart Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad for the third game in a r o w, which wil l i nevit a bl y trigger fresh speculation that they are picking their side with one eye on the 2021-22 Ashes.
Broad is said to be frustrated that he keeps being bracketed with Anderson, who at 37 is three years his senior. And he remains baffled by his omission from the first Test: since the start of 2019, Broad’s haul of 52 Test wickets at 24 apiece is 16 clear of his nearest team-mate, Stokes.
One option would be to play them together, which would probably mean no immediate return for Mark Wood, who was rested from the second Test, and no place for either Chris Woakes and Sam Curran, who were both picked.
England’s official line is that t he permutations present a pleasant dilemma. But, as the outcry over Broad’s dropping proved, they can easily become a headache.