WORLD CUP WIN WAS BEST DAY OF MY LIFE... NOW LET ME AT THE AUSSIES!
England’s World Cup superstar JOFRA ARCHER on carving his name into the nation’s sporting folklore
Jofra archer is reliving the tumultuous moment when he realised he had carved his name into english sporting folklore and changed his life for ever.
‘I had half a tear on,’ says archer of the jubilation that followed him winning the World cup for england. ‘I don’t really remember what I was feeling but I did think everyone was behind me when I started running around Lord’s. Then when I looked I was all by myself!
‘We hadn’t planned any celebration because you don’t want to get too giddy. So it was all just natural. It was the best moment of my life. I’ve certainly had the best three months of my life since I started playing for england.’
We are sitting at a quiet and deserted hove, reflecting on those moments in front of a frenzied Lord’s less than two weeks ago that are still almost beyond comprehension. and the pivotal role played in them by this incredible new superstar of world cricket.
‘I don’t know why I wasn’t really nervous,’ archer says of being asked to bowl the super over that, in all probability, would have defined his career, win or lose.
‘I was expecting to bowl it but I had to go over and ask eoin Morgan because he didn’t say anything. Ben Stokes had been in a similar situation in the World Twenty20 final so he came over and told me it wouldn’t be down to me if we lost.
‘and I was thinking, “We’ve done well to get to the final. If it’s a loss, so be it. No one will have died. It won’t be the end of the world”. It was my way of trying to stay calm.’ a man who had made his international debut only two months or so earlier now had the hopes of a nation at his fingertips when, having kept New Zealand to 14 of the 16 they needed from the first five deliveries, he ran in to bowl at Martin Guptill.
‘They had hit a six and some twos so I had to find a dot or a one which was always going to be hard because they were going to run regardless,’ archer says, matter-of-factly.
‘I was telling myself to stick with the yorker. I was trying to win it but I knew a tie would be enough. It was do or die but everyone held their nerve.’
Not least this quiet, polite and unassuming 24- year- old from Barbados who was suddenly catapulted into the sporting stratosphere after coming such an extraordinarily long way in such a short time since pledging his cricketing future to the land of his father. ‘I really didn’t think it would be possible to play for england until the residential rules changed,’ he insists.
‘I’d wanted to, but to actually get the opportunity is something else. I know of so many good players who have spent their careers in county cricket and don’t really get close, so for england to show interest in me was heart-warming.
‘When I first came here, playing first-class cricket was my goal and only when I had played for Sussex did I start thinking about england. So to achieve all my goals within four years of moving here is pretty amazing. every time I think back on the journey I still can’t believe how well it’s gone. It’s stuff you could only dream of.’
But could he have been playing for his native West Indies in that World cup? for the first time archer tells the full story of why he turned his back on them.
‘There was never really a chance of playing for the senior West Indies team,’ he insists. ‘I was left out of the Under 19 World cup in 2014 and then I got injured shortly after. I got dropped and no one looked out for me.
‘ The Barbados Under 19 manager tried to get me a physio but he was doing it off his own bat. The instruction from West Indies wasn’t that good but it’s got better since I left. It’s just a shame it took someone leaving for them to see what was going on.
‘I bumped into chris Jordan a few weeks later when he was in Barbados. We trained together and I ended up bowling to him and we got talking. I told him I had a British passport and asked if there was anything he could do for me in england.
‘he spoke to Mark robinson at Sussex and they wanted to have a look at me. at first the injury was still affecting me and I went back home before I came back to play club cricket in england as a batter. I still trained with Sussex and the physios helped me until my back healed and I was able to play second-team cricket.
‘Then Jason Swift, the seconds coach, told me I was playing for the first team against Pakistan. from the moment I bowled my first ball against them my life drastically changed. and my back has been fine ever since, touch wood.’
It is difficult to remember now but there was controversy about archer’s rapid elevation to england’s ranks virtually as soon as the ecB somewhat conveniently reduced the qualification period he had to serve from seven years to three.
‘I don’t think they changed the rules for me,’ he says now. ‘But if I’d had to wait until I was 28 to play for england I would have only had limited time. and I didn’t think I would go straight in the side. The group had been together a while and it was a gamble to put me in it because it could have gone wrong.
‘I do think about what might have happened. I could have been the most expensive bowler at the World cup. It might have been too big an occasion. I might not have been ready. I was aware of all that so I just didn’t want to come in and step on anyone’s toes.
‘I didn’t want to be seen as a favourite so when I was picked I wanted to stay in my corner and just be cool. Luckily everybody was very welcoming. There were a
‘I did think everyone was behind me when I started running around Lord’s. Then when I looked I was all by myself!’
‘I’m really hoping to be part of the Ashes. I don’t think any game fires our guys up more than Australia’
few articles going around before my selection with bowlers saying it might be unfair. But the guys contacted me to say they were misinterpreted. ‘They reached out to me almost as soon as the articles appeared and that meant a lot. I realised before I had even bowled a ball that these guys had a heart.’ Far from being expensive and a failure, Archer, as so many good judges believed he would, made an immediate impression and went on to break Sir Ian Botham’s record for the most wickets by any Englishman in a World Cup by claiming 20 victims. ‘I thought batsmen might have been a bit more attacking towards me,’ admits Archer. ‘It was my first big tournament and I’m still pretty young. I thought they might come out all guns blazing but they showed me respect so I have to say it went a lot better than I expected. Everything went to plan.’ And he did it, remarkably, with an injured side that ruled him out of England’s rollercoaster of a Te s t wi n against Ireland and left a question mark over the timing of his inevitable introduction to red-ball international cricket and the Ashes.
‘I got the injury in the Afghanistan game and I had it for the rest of the tournament,’ he reveals.
‘It was pretty bad and got more painful towards the end. But you can handle the pain for 10 overs and I still think I bowled the fastest ball at the World Cup! I had painkillers but it’s settled now and I don’t need them any more.
‘Thank goodness for that because I can’t imagine playing in a Test with them.’
Archer hopes he will be playing in a Test on Thursday for, as long as he does not suffer any reaction from last night’s homecoming Twenty20 Blast game for Sussex against Surrey, he is expected to today be named in England’s squad for the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston.
‘We will see when the team gets picked but it’s part of the reason I wanted to play against Surrey,’ he said ahead of last night’s game. ‘I wanted to let England know I was back on the park and getting through a game like this is a start.
‘With my background the biggest game I always want to play is against West Indies but I’m really hoping to be part of the Ashes. I’ve seen it on TV and I had a glimpse of what it means when we played Australia in the World Cup. I don’t think any game fires our guys up more than Australia.’
Until that Ashes debut comes, and it will not be delayed for long even if it is felt Edgbaston is too soon, Archer will continue coming to terms with the scale of his achievement at the World Cup and the new-found attention it has brought him.
‘I knew how big the World Cup was straight afterwards,’ he said. ‘I was just walking back to my flat and a guy who was gardening in one of the houses nearby stopped what he was doing, ran over and shook my hand. He said he was in the pub watching the final.
‘And I’ve had that sort of thing the whole time since it was over. I went back to Barbados for a few days and the people were great but everything I did was under the spotlight. I just went to an event and the pictures were all over the internet.
‘I guess that’s the price you pay for doing well but I know what we did meant a lot to a lot of people. I’ve seen so many videos of kids watching the final and blowing up after we won. It means a lot to the country, not just us.’
Our time done, Archer gets up to go back to his flat, which overlooks the Hove ground. ‘I used to have a two-minute commute to work but I’ve got myself an electric scooter so now it’s down to 45 seconds,’ he smiles.
Before he leaves he sends a message to new Sussex team-mate Alex Carey, who has just missed out on selection for Australia’s Ashes squad. ‘I’ve asked him if he cut himself shaving,’ says Archer mischievously of the man he struck on the head during the World Cup semi-final at Edgbaston and perhaps symbolically drew his blood.
They are examples of the humour evident in this man of searing pace and more than decent batting we have yet to really see in an England shirt who looks destined for a long and sensational career.
‘To have even just played for England would have been enough to keep me going for the rest of the year but to play in a World Cup and win it is something very special,’ he adds.
‘My life hasn’t really changed too much. I’m just probably noticed more now because millions of people watched the final. I just need to keep backing up my performances. That’s what it’s all about now. And not change as a person.’
There seems little chance of that. Jofra Archer, the 95mph superstar, is here to stay with red ball as well as white. Enjoy the ride.