It was in Johannesburg two winters ago that Jofra Archer contemplated his future, amid the increasing demands on elite cricketers.
‘The physios will have a plan for my well-being,’ he said, still nursing the first of several disruptive elbow injuries. Some 18 months on and those plans are no closer to fruition.
If anything, Archer’s predicament is getting worse. It was confirmed yesterday that he was out of the T20 World Cup, out of the Ashes tour. It is another elbow injury, although not the same one. More than ever, there remains the fear that Archer’s career will amount to substantially less than envisaged.
There is a fear that Jofra Archer's career will amount to substantially less than was envisaged
Will he even play Test cricket again, that was yesterday’s question. There was always a frailty around Archer which sat rather awkwardly with the lofty heights of the ECB’s hopes for him. Didn’t they know his history, the reason he fell out with the hierarchy in West Indies cricket in the first place?
It was a dispute over his fitness for the Under 19 World Cup that drove him into the ECB’s arms. Archer had been fast-tracked into the team but doubts over a back injury saw him left out of it prior to the tournament in 2014. By the time Archer recovered he was already talking to Chris Jordan and Sussex about coming to England.
His reputation, and worth in his new home, built from there. With hindsight, maybe there were some in the Caribbean whose initial fears have been realised.
The politics of West Indian cricket are notoriously hard to negotiate and Archer felt increasingly unsupported. Yet what has befallen him since changing allegiance is hardly an endorsement of the pastoral care in his adopted home.
He has already been ruled out of the T20 World Cup and Ashes tour over another elbow issue
English cricket has, at various times, bowled Archer into the ground — and failed to recognise a significant injury problem. There have been some very public trials and injudicious comments that implied his heart wasn’t sufficiently in it. In between, there have been moments of pure brilliance — a World Cup win, that incredible duel with Steve Smith at Lord’s — yet if what Archer has done for English cricket is obvious, what English cricket has done for Archer is less so.
Wednesday's announcement saw him resigning from the two events that were meant to be his priority: the T20 World Cup, and the Ashes. He was central to England’s strategy in both. The day that statement can again be made with confidence seems further away than ever.
The worry is that Archer’s current elbow injury is said to be unrelated to his first. It suggests a wider problem. As heartbreaking as it has been to see athletes such as Dina Asher-Smith and Katarina Johnson-Thompson laid low after waiting so long for their moment at the Olympics, these are injury episodes, an occupational hazard.
What Archer is enduring has a degree of permanence, like the woes that affected Jack Wilshere or, most recently, Andy Murray. Archer’s body has not
