When Jofra Archer tore in to bowl against Pakistan at the Oval earlier this month, he instantly crossed one of those cricketing thresholds that sets tongues wagging and pulses racing. And that wasn’t all he did.
By passing 90mph, he announced himself to those unfamiliar with his work as that rarest of breeds: an England bowler whose main weapon is pace, not swing or seam.
By doing it repeatedly, he produced what was reckoned to be the quickest one-day spell for England in a decade. It was cricket in the raw — and a shame rain limited him to figures of 4-2-6-1.
Jofra Archer could prove to be England's hero at the Cricket World Cup this summer
Now 24, Archer was born on the south coast of Barbados and rolled out his own wicket
For Archer, it was just another step on his remarkable journey, across the world and to the top.
A young man, born on the south coast of Barbados, who rolled his own wicket on a piece of common land near his home and built a practice net with his stepfather. A kid who learned how to bowl swing with a tennis ball half-wrapped in electrical tape.
That same boy who will now hope to swap that makeshift net for the Lord’s square if he can bowl England into their first World Cup final in 27 years.
Watching on at the Oval that day was Jon Lewis, the former Test seamer and current head of the England Lions who mentored Archer throughout his time at Sussex as the club’s bowling coach.
As if we weren’t already excited enough, Lewis casually declared he had seen his man bowl faster in county cricket. At the Oval, he felt, Archer was prioritising accuracy over pace.
It was quite a thought. Truly, his days as a batsman and part-time leg-spinner in his native Barbados are beginning to sound like some kind of cosmic joke.
‘You could see very early that he was special,’ Lewis tells The Mail on Sunday. ‘He is going to be a generational cricketer. We talk about the likes of Anderson and Broad — those names roll off the tongue. Back in the day it was McGrath and Lee, before them Ambrose and Walsh.
‘I believe Archer will be one of those sorts of cricketers. He has the ability, the determination to succeed, and a competitive nature. People say he is here for the money. But he came here with nothing. He left his family to move here with a long-term ambition. That is huge.’
The rise and rise of Jofra Archer, from a kid who enjoyed messing around with tapeball cricket to a strapping 24-year-old confident enough to name Indian captain Virat Kohli as the scalp he would most like to claim over the next few weeks, already feels like the story of this World Cup. And the tournament doesn’t start until Thursday.
Archer learned how to bowl swing with a tennis ball half-wrapped in electrical tape
Now Archer is stepping out to represent England on the big stage
Actually, strapping isn’t quite the right word. Archer is tall, certainly, but he is lithe not bulky, and prowls to the wicket rather than charges. Much of his pace comes from a powerful shoulder action. And, as Lewis implied, he often seems to bowl within himself.
It is an optical illusion that could yet help England lift the trophy at Lord’s on July 14.
If the world were a fairer place, Archer might now be lining up for West Indies rather than England; his British passport comes courtesy of his English father, Frank, who used to drive trains on the London Underground before retiring to Liverpool. His mother, Joelle, is from Barbados.
Archer was a latecomer to fast bowling, ditching the leg-breaks only after a growth spurt at 15. He then made early headlines as a schoolboy in 2013, taking a five-for and hitting 86 to help Christchurch Foundation win a cup final.
But he was unimpressed to be left out of the West Indies squad for the Under-19 World Cup in 2014. Back in Barbados, there is a feeling among some that the West Indies turned their back on him at a time when Archer was suffering from a back injury and most needed support.
Archer decided to make a go of it across the Atlantic, where Chris Jordan — another Bajan adopted by England — suggested Sussex.
These days, Jordan — six years Archer’s senior — is a confidant, best friend and team-mate, sharing in his successes and cajoling him along the way. ‘I’ve been on his journey with him from the start,’ says Jordan. ‘I know what he’s been through and what his mindset is. Every time he’s had to step up, the level of his game has risen too.’
It wasn’t always easy. Archer arrived in England not entirely in one piece, the result of stress fractures in his back — a fast bowler’s painful rite of passage.
The upshot was he began life with Middleton-on-Sea in Division Two of the Sussex Cricket League as a batsman, though his current first-class average of 31 suggests this wasn’t the worst idea.
Until then, Middleton-on-Sea, a south-coast village 20 miles west of Hove, was probably best known for once being the home of Chesney Allen, one half of the wartime double act Flanagan and Allen.
But Archer did his best to change that. In one of his early games, against Lindfield, he offered to complete the over of an injured colleague, with startling consequences. Middleton’s captain Brandon Hanley told the Evening Standard: ‘He bowled off four paces and his first ball nearly killed the poor batter.’
Mark Davis was coaching the Sussex 2nd XI. ‘We had heard about this lad, who was supposed to be pretty useful,’ he says. ‘We got him down to the nets and you could already see that he was an incredible talent. At that stage he still had a