Jofra Archer, who returned to the England squad after spending most of the last week in self-isolation, has opened up about the immense public scrutiny that followed his breach of bio-secure protocols, and how he sought advice from teammate Ben Stokes to deal with it.
Archer, who took a detour to Brighton on his way to Manchester, was excluded from the second Test of the ongoing England-West Indies series and underwent five days of isolation during which he took two Covid-19 tests.
The quick was thrust into the spotlight for his actions, even drawing criticism from ex-cricketers such as Michael Atherton, who called his action “very foolish”.
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Admitting that the past week had been “tough”, Archer, in his column for Daily Mail, wrote that he had made an error of judgement, but stressed that he “had not committed a crime” and “wished to start feeling myself again”.
“I spoke briefly to the doctor about how I’m feeling and also to Ben Stokes on Monday night,” Archer wrote. “Ben tried to advise me on how to deal with being in the spotlight of international sport. He vowed to back me and support me. Now I need to be 100 per cent mentally right so that I can throw myself into my cricket this week.”
"Archer may still be young, thrillingly unusual, and a gift to the English game. But while this was a rookie error, he’s no rookie."@Phil_Wisden on why Jofra Archer can't afford any more rejections of the script.https://t.co/JbEOstHP7w
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) July 17, 2020
“To be straight, if I play and don’t bowl 90 miles an hour it’s going to be news. If I don’t bowl 90 miles per hour for long enough it’s going to be news. If I don’t put my left sock on first, it’s going to be news. I understand that is the scrutiny of playing at this level and being in that spotlight.
“The second innings in Southampton showed me how fickle cricket is. In the first innings, I hear I am this and that – over-rated. Then, the second innings comes, I do well and it’s all, ‘He’s a great player.’ That’s cricket. Some days are good, some are bad. No one is going to be amazing all the time. Sometimes I feel it’s not a fair world – really and truly.”
Archer compared the attention to that on Stokes, currently the No.1 Test all-rounder, praising his mental strength despite the tremendous scrutiny over the past couple of years.
“I think Ben used to suffer the same thing,” he wrote. “That time has gone now because he has been so amazing for the last year to 18 months, so no one is going to have anything to say.
“I don’t know how he gets by without telling everyone off. He must have been so strong mentally to resist doing so.”
