To err is human, but in catastrophic times like these when close to six million lives have been lost before their time, severe damages caused to economies all over lives thrown out of normalcy and no end yet for the COVID-19 pandemic in the horizon, it is only imperative for us all is to do as directed.
That only science and human intelligence combined with patience and discipline will get us back the world we all know as ‘normal’ is paramount, but what surely is challenging is to be a follower these days—to be an ardent follower who does not go astray, listens and understands well, acts responsibly, and additionally help the others.
But in doing all this, the young Jofra Archer has failed.
The 25-year-old Barbados-born English bowler’s mistake was to have an hour-long stopover at his home during transit from Southampton to Manchester, for the second Test between England and the West Indies. He not only breached England’s bio-security protocols—newest of words in cricketing ambit—but jeopardised a lot more than he probably would have realised.
For cricket is only beginning to limp back to normalcy and that it is still unknown when it will retake its flight.
Not only there are players from both the camps who have taken great risks and pains to ensure cricket returns to its fields, officials and administrators too have performed their roles to perfection providing the sport is not left behind in the onerous challenge of making a comeback.
Archer’s actions indeed carry severe repercussions. The dramatic revelation of his trip to home was not the only startling point; the fact that he broke the secure bio-bubble and met an unnamed outsider carried as high a risk as any. He even had a training session with the team after the end of which he mentioned travelling to home to one of England’s support staff, who was vigilant enough to raise the red flag.
While other sports such as football and Formula One have attained some altitude in their flight to normalcy, cricket is only one contest into its effort. After the West Indies, the English side will take on Pakistan at home, and there is also a possibility of Australia making a tour for limited-overs series, for which they have even announced a preliminary side of 26 players. All this is crucial for cricket’s return to its usual self, while the world awaits some positive news from the powerhouse in India (a nation with over million COVID-19 infections), with the BCCI caught in intense brain-storming for having the IPL 2020.
This is where cricketers and everyone involved in the sport need to look more into what meets the eye in the incident involving Archer. He broke the bio-bubble—a scientific and extremely cautious approach to ensure the players remain safe from the outside world threat—and he met an outsider. There is not much information available on the identity of this outsider, and it can only be hoped that no negative news emerges from the England camp over the next coming few days.
The tour could have been cancelled due to Archer’s negligency
“This could have been a disaster,” said former cricketer and the current managing director of England men’s cricket Ashley Giles. “A small act, the ripple effect this could have had through the whole summer could have cost us tens of millions of pounds.”
These are indeed days wherein the element of risk is high. Archer was late in informing that he had been home, and with him being selected in the England side for the second Test, what if he would have played the Old Trafford Test? If such a revelation was made during the match, it would have only led to the cancellation of the contest and perhaps the remainder of the series.
Archer’s act would have also put the upcoming series in jeopardy, with other cricket boards struggling to find confidence in ECB’s abilities to maintain required standards to host their respective teams. But most importantly, it could have derailed the efforts for the resumption of cricket, which remains a distant dream as the pandemic does not look like slowing down.
For a cricketing point of view, England fast-tracked Archer’s entry into international cricket for his rare talent. The decision bore fruits with Archer being one of their heroes in their successful World Cup campaign last year. It’s a shame that as a key member he missed a Test for negligence, especially when the hosts are reeling 0-1 in the ongoing series.
But in the meantime, Archer, who will remain out of bounds of the players and will see them only after the end of the Test, joins the quirky list of players who were dropped from their respective teams for non-cricketing reasons. Like Shoaib Akhtar for abusing and hitting a teammate with a stump, or Andrew Symonds for setting out on a fishing excursion, or Andrew Flintoff for getting lost in the sea after consuming a heavy amount of alcohol during a World Cup campaign, or like Kevin Pietersen who was axed for texting members of the opposition team during a series.
(Devarchit Varma is a sports journalist who has worked with Hindustan Times and CricketCountry. He tweets at @devarchit.)
