Jofra Archer

He went on a sixty mile detour to call at home when travelling from the last test match in Southampton to the current venue Manchester. I think like Demonic Cummings he thinks the rules only apply to others.

 

Soft punishment by the ECB. Instead of self isloating he should have been sent home with no hope of playing the third test.

 

But unlike Cummings, he's apologised and acknowledged what he did was wrong, without trying to bs some sort of loophole.

 

Doesn't mean he's not a complete arse for breaking the rule in the first place, ironically his former countrymen from the West Indies are furious with him because they've been under such strict quarantine so as not to take Covid 19 back home as some islands are Covid free and he put them at risk.

 

I saw that list, I'd suggest there's not been much cricket this year

 

He’s been a bit of an idiot and the consequences of what he did could have been far reaching.

But it needs contextualising, he made a little detour to call at home on the way to Manchester from Southampton. He didn’t drive hundreds of miles, he didn’t sneak out of the hotel for a booze up. He called home on his way up north.

He shouldn’t have done it. Clearly. He has acknowledged that and apologised for his actions.

I don’t really see why he’s being hung out to dry by some. He made a daft error of judgement but he’s no criminal. He has rightly been taken out of the bubble, and needs to prove he is safe to play from a covid point of view for the good of his team mates and opponents. He should come back into the squad for the third test and the Pakistan series, and should be selected, so long as he tests negative. One test being missed and the embarrassment of the public announcement is plenty of punishment for the ‘crime’ committed.

As for the argument that if you take the five-fors out, 33 wickets in 8 tests isn’t many, wow. That’s a right argument. If you take out the braces and hat tricks, Alan Shearer didn’t score that many and if you don’t count takeaways my calorie intake is pretty good. It is just ridiculous.

Michael Holding took ten wickets at 60 each in his first five tests.

James Anderson took 11 tests to take 33 wickets. After 8 tests he’d got 26 at an average of nearly 35; a very solid start. Archer has 33 at an average of 28.

Broad had 26 wickets at 45 after ten tests.

Jofra Archer has the ability to move the ball around off the seam and swing it bowling 85-90, and can change up a pace when there’s no movement and get up to 95mph+. No noticeable change in action and can flit between both bowling types. He has a killer short ball, about four or five variations of slower ball.

He’s much, much more than an out and out paceman, he even knows which way round to hold the bat, he’ll get fifties; he should play whenever fit whatever the conditions. He will bowl match winning spells. He does need to adapt to those crap Kookaburra balls though.

 

Archer"s had a great start to test cricket but he should be a fast bowling strike bowler. He will only be able to swing or get enough movement off the pitch in England and perhaps a couple of the grounds on the South Island of NZ though. His pace will be mightily more useful in the rest of the cricketing world. Like I said, I like him so let's use him properly and sparingly.

 

Guess they didnt want to cut their nose off to spite their face? We'll need him for the third test no doubt.

 

Very silly boy.