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Special report: How Jofra Archer slipped through West Indies' grasp

Ben Stokes of England and Jofra Archer of England celebrate after winning the Cricket World Cup during the Final of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 between New Zealand and England at Lord's Cricket Ground on July 14, 2019 in London, England - Gareth Copley-IDI/IDI via Getty Images)
Ben Stokes of England and Jofra Archer of England celebrate after winning the Cricket World Cup during the Final of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 between New Zealand and England at Lord's Cricket Ground on July 14, 2019 in London, England - Gareth Copley-IDI/IDI via Getty Images)

In January 2014, the West Indies selectors met to select their squad for the U-19 World Cup. Their main decision was which quick bowlers to leave out.

“We had some really good young fast bowlers,” remembers Ramaal Lewis, captain of the West Indies U-19s in the World Cup. “It was tight competition.” One contender was Jofra Archer, who was a few months short of turning 19.

Unlike many of the best Barbados young cricketers, who are often part of the island’s representative team from U-13 level onwards, Archer was a relative outsider, only becoming known to the island selectors when he was around 16.

“He came in the set-up a bit late, and there were some very talented cricketers around,” says Dexter Toppin, the Barbados U-19 coach. “Jofra's problem is that we didn't see a lot of him. A lot of people in Barbados wouldn't really know Jofra.

“Jofra came on the scene in 2011 and straightaway he made an impact. I had my eye on him throughout - he’s a natural talent, bowls slippery, has a good bouncer, gets the ball to move around.”

In 2012, when he was 17, Archer narrowly missed out on selection for Barbados for the West Indies regional U-19 tournament. But a year later, Archer was picked for the tournament and thrived in St Kitts.

“He was the fastest there — he was bowling with good pace,” remembers Toppin, who reckons Archer could already approach 85mph. “He bowled quick on some dead tracks. He was very, very impressive.”

Archer took nine wickets at an average of 18 in the tournament, and was a persistent threat to limbs as well as stumps.

“I liked him from the first time I saw him,” recalls Lewis, who captained Jamaica U-19 in the tournament. “I was like, wow, extreme pace and he was causing a lot of problems… He left a lot of marks on players.” One batsman was hit in the chest; another was knocked off his feet by a yorker. “He had everything.”

Facing Archer “was very tough, because he's so nippy and his run-up will trick you because it's just like a simple jog to the crease.” Lewis remembers Archer and Ray Jordan — six months older than Archer, and now a first-class cricketer for the Windward Islands — as the fastest bowlers in the tournament.

Archer’s performances earned his elevation to the West Indies U-19 squad. Lewis came to rue facing him in the nets. “He don't want to see you hit his ball — if he bowl you a half-volley, just gently push it. Even though you're his teammate he's gonna come at you once you give him an expression in the nets."

Jofra Archer
Jofra Archer

The 2014 U-19 World Cup would be played on the slow surfaces in the UAE. As such, the West Indies scheduled seven one-day internationals against Bangladesh in Guyana, which had the slowest tracks in the Caribbean. Archer had never played in Guyana before.

From Barbados, Toppin sent Archer emails and WhatsApp messages. “I tried to tell him he got to bowl a bit straighter in Guyana.”

But Archer struggled to adapt. "Jofra didn't really look the part,” Lewis remembers. “He knew the Guyana wickets weren't going to suit him that well so maybe he just lacked confidence in the series. That's why he never really performed to the best of his ability.”

The series was, effectively, a trial. Seventeen players were picked, and all were given at least three games; only 15 could be selected for the World Cup. Though he scored a breezy 35 in one innings, Archer recorded underwhelming figures of 3-118 from 20 overs across his three games.

“He wasn't bowling fast as he did in the regional tournament,” Lewis remembers. “We had Marquino Mindley and Jerome Jones who had played the previous World Cup, so they were the senior bowlers. Jofra was right up there with them, but he didn't perform well enough.”

When Clyde Butts, the chairman of selectors, and the rest of the panel met to decide the West Indies’s squad, their decision essentially boiled down to Archer or Preston McSween. Archer was quicker and a batter batsman, but they plumped for McSween, who was more consistent and was a left-armer.

Lewis still believes selecting McSween was the correct decision. "To be honest, at the time, yes," he says. "Had Jofra bowled well against Bangladesh, he would have made the cut over Preston."

Others were less convinced the selectors were correct. "It was a bit of a surprise," recalls Roland Butcher, the former England cricketer and a longstanding member of the Barbados Cricket Association. “You would imagine that if you are one of the best performers that you will be selected so some error was made along the line.”

Roddy Estwick, now the West Indies's assistant coach, was the U-19 coach then. "When you lose a player of that talent you have some tinge of regret but you can’t hold that regret for the rest of your life," Estwick said recently.

Lewis believes that Estwick wanted Archer in the squad, but was outvoted. Certainly, Estwick was well-aware of Archer's capabilities; former West Indies quick Ian Bishop recalls that Estwick "first alerted me about Jofra's talent".

“Jofra probably should have gone to the World Cup — I think that the selectors got it wrong,” Toppin says. “Jofra had the ability and the selectors probably missed it a bit. I would say it was unfair. I think that the decision-making at the time was a bit flawed.

“Either Jofra improved or McSween didn't improve — or he wasn't as good as Jofra but still got the chance to go.”

McSween’s career so far has not matched Archer’s, but he is currently in England as one of the West Indies’s reserves. With hindsight, the real mistake was selecting fellow Bajan Jerome Jones over Archer. Jones had played in the previous U-19 World Cup when only 17 but he is still yet to play a professional match.

“Jofra and Jerome were in the same U-19 tournament in St Kitts and to me it was like chalk and cheese,” Toppin says. “Jerome never really kicked on.”

Cricket nerd newsletter REFERRAL (index)
Cricket nerd newsletter REFERRAL (index)

Perhaps the greatest regret for the West Indies is not the decision itself, but the tactlessness with which it was conveyed. Archer felt like he had been unjustly ignored, and then wasn’t given enough support through a persistent back injury.

"I was angry with the West Indies, so that helped me with my decision to come and try to play for England," Archer later said. Impressed with his bowling on their pre-season tour to Barbados, Northamptonshire tried to sign Archer, and then Barbados native Chris Jordan helped Archer move to club cricket in Sussex, and then sign for the county in 2016. Despite the West Indies making overtures to bring Archer back, there would be no turning back.

“It should have been handled better,” says Philo Wallace, a former West Indies cricketer from Barbados. Last year Wallace sat on a Cricket West Indies task force into how national teams were selected; as part of this, the group looked into how Archer was dropped.

“When you're a selector, or chairman of selectors and you don't select a player who is a member of a previous squad, you need to be able to call that player and explain why he wasn't picked. Because a player is a human being — he has feelings.

“Then once he gets back into the Barbados set-up, the Barbados selectors or cricket board should have been able to help him to get through that period — he would have been depressed, he would have been angry. I think that more mechanisms need to be in place to help players like Jofra.

“The selectors will look back with hindsight and say that we've made a mistake. Obviously, it was not communicated in the right way. We must not allow a Jofra Archer to slip through the system again.”

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So there is frustration that Archer will line up against a side brimming with his compatriots; 13 members of the West Indies's 25-man touring squad are from Barbados. Yet there is only admiration for how he channeled his disappointment at the outcome of that selection meeting six years ago.

“As a youngster, he might have said that he wanted to play Test cricket for the West Indies — now he's going to play against the West Indies for England,” says Lewis. “There is nothing to fault Jofra about. He made use of an opportunity that he got because he loved cricket.”

A few weeks after bowling the super over that won England their first World Cup Archer, back in Barbados, bumped into Toppin, his old Barbados U-19 coach, outside a supermarket.

“I said Jof, how you doing man — nice to see you. We had a little high five and we had a chat. I told him that I got my computer and I still got the footage of him bowling in St Kitts so he tell me he would love to see it. We just went to the car park and we looked at it.

“Where the opportunity takes you, you've got to go… That's how life pans out — not everybody can play for the West Indies.”

Toppin has a simple wish for Archer’s first Test series against England. “I would love the West Indies to win and Jofra to do well.”