Jofra Archer has revealed that he received racist abuse on social media after his exclusion from the second Test against West Indies for breaking bio-secure protocols.
Archer was excluded from the 13-man England squad for the second Test after taking a detour home to Brighton while on his way to Manchester from the Ageas Bowl. He was subsequently placed on five days of isolation and was tested twice for Covid-19 – both of which returned negative.
Good news!
Jofra Archer’s second Covid-19 test has returned negative.
That means his isolation period can now end. pic.twitter.com/XSUWT3tX3y
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) July 21, 2020
Detailing how the last few days have been for him, Archer, writing for the Daily Mail, pointed out that he has had to “unfollow and mute a lot of social media profiles” and some of the abuse directed at him has been racist. He has since lodged complaints with the ECB.
“Over the last few days,” Archer wrote, “I have unfollowed and muted a lot of social media profiles to get away from it. I won’t be going back on it. I find it unnecessary noise. Take two wickets and everyone is back on the bandwagon again. It’s a fickle, fickle world we live in.
“Some of the abuse I have taken over the past few days on Instagram has been racist and I have decided that enough is enough. Since Wilfried Zaha, the Crystal Palace footballer, was abused by a 12-year-old online I drew a line and I will not allow anything to pass, so I have forwarded on my complaints to the ECB and that will go through the correct process.”
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Archer revealed that he has apologised to his teammates and to the West Indies players as well for putting them at risk.
“I accept that I put the other guys at risk, he wrote. “I did not follow the advice and therefore apologised to my team-mates, to the West Indies team, and to everyone involved in the series.”
